Sayyaf now at the end of the road — Arroyo

It’s the end of the road for the Abu Sayyaf following the government’s massive crackdown on its members and sympathizers in Basilan.

President Arroyo told reporters yesterday it’s just a matter of time before the bandits land in jail or lay in their graves as the military puts an end to lawlessness in Mindanao.

Speaking at the graduation rites of the National Defense College of the Philippines in Malacañang yesterday, Mrs. Arroyo said the government has succeeded in getting the cooperation and support of residents in Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, and Zamboanga City.

"I know that progress and development in Mindanao, Basilan and Sulu can only come if we destroy the enemies of peace and order," she said.

"The Abu Sayyaf and their cohorts are the Filipino people’s enemies. They are on the run and soon they will reach the end of the road. In just a matter of time, they will land in jail or lie down in their graves. I assure you their time of reckoning will come."

More suspects are expected to fall following the relentless police and military operations against Abu Sayyaf members and sympathizers in Basilan, she added.

In Zamboanga City, Hector Janjalani, brother of Abu Sayyaf chieftain Khadaffi Janjalani, will be arraigned in court on Friday on charges of kidnapping and serious illegal detention.

However, the Philippine National Police (PNP) will ask the Zamboanga City Regional Trial Court to order the arraignment transferred to Metro Manila for security reasons.

Quoting intelligence reports, Deputy Director General Hermogenes Ebdane, PNP deputy chief for administration, told reporters yesterday Abu Sayyaf bandits will try to snatch Hector from police custody as soon as he arrives in Zamboanga City.

Ebdane said the court has ordered Senior Superintendent Guillermo Daripog, PNP legal services chief, to present Hector in court on Friday for his arraignment.

Police arrested Hector inside a mall in Ermita, Manila on December 27 last year while peddling a video of former hostage Jeffrey Craig Schilling to a foreign correspondent.

In Basilan, Army troops arrested a former Marine in downtown Isabela City yesterday after he was suspected of being an Abu Sayyaf bandit.

The arrest of Abdel Orena, alias Abdel Cariño and Abu Tagalog, came as the Zamboanga Regional Trial Court ordered 28 suspected Abu Sayyaf members and sympathizers detained at the Zamboanga City Reformatory Center (ZCRC) following their inquest last Monday afternoon.

Lt. Col. Danilo Servando, Southern Command spokesman, told reporters yesterday Abu Tagalog, who is in the military’s order of battle, was arrested at 9 a.m. Monday at the sub-office of the Basilan Electric Cooperative along Roxas Avenue, where he is employed as electrician.

Servando said Abu Tagalog was taken to the headquarters of the Army’s 103rd Brigade, where he has been undergoing tactical interrogation.

"We expect more apprehensions to be done as a result of a continued military operation in Basilan and Sulu until finally this Abu Sayyaf problem has been solved," he said. – Marichu Villanueva, Roel Pareño, Edith Regalado, Jaime Laude, Lino dela Cruz