Sayyaf regroups as soldiers recalled for poll duties

Muslim extremists scattered by an Army assault last month regrouped as soldiers were called away to guard midterm election voting last Monday, officials said yesterday.

After splintering off to flee an Army advance, the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas used the election period to better entrench in the mountains and jungles of Sulu, said Lt. Gen. Gregorio Camiling, chief of the military’s Southern Command.

Camiling said the Abu Sayyaf, which claims it is fighting to carve an independent Islamic state out of the southern Philippines, have recruited new members in the past week, adding to its estimated force of 1,200 members.

As much as 80 percent of the Armed Forces, including the Sulu units, have been on duty since the beginning of the week to protect midterm elections for municipal, provincial and congressional officials.

Voting was on Monday but many soldiers are still guarding polling stations amid vote counting that is expected to extend to the end of the month.

President Arroyo ordered "all out war" against the Abu Sayyaf six weeks ago when they threatened to behead Jeffrey Schilling, a US hostage they were holding.

The Army rescued the Oakland, California native April 12 in a raid on a guerrilla hideout but continued their assault on the guerrillas.

The Abu Sayyaf, the smallest of the three major insurgency groups in the Philippines, shot to international notoriety last year after seizing dozens of hostages, many of them foreigners, in daring raids. It released all but two - Schilling and Filipino dive resort worker Roland Ullah - for reported multimillion-dollar ransoms.

Ullah is still held hostage on the island, Camiling said. – Roel Pareño