Abu Sayyaf, Part II - SKETCHES by Ana Marie Pamintuan

There are people who feel perverse relief from the latest Abu Sayyaf caper. At last, a non-political activity! Now we can take a break from the usual bunch of thieving, vote-buying, cheating politicians ce-lebrating their victory or crying foul as they are replaced by a new bunch of thieves, vote buyers and poll cheats.

Only Tourism Secretary Dick Gordon is wringing his hands in dismay over the Abu Sayyaf raid on Dos Palmas. For the rest of us who are sick and bored of the Comelec show, we’re riveted to the revival of the soap opera that was so rudely interrupted by Luis "Chavit" Singson and the impeachment drama last year. Here comes Abu Sayyaf Dos, or is it Tres? Will we soon see the familiar leer of Ghalib "Commander Robot" Andang again? Or is this show being run by Khadaffi Janjalani from the hinterlands of Basilan?

Whoever emerges as the ogre of the hour, it’s good to focus on a drama where it’s easy to identify the villains. For a while there, the line between good and evil in national affairs was becoming too blurred for comfort.

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The malicious among us are noting that the Abu Sayyaf’s abduction of 21 mostly foreign hostages last year in the Malaysian resort of Sipadan diverted national attention from the stock market scandal involving Best World Resources. Too bad for the Erap administration that the diversion didn’t last long enough to blunt Singson’s disclosures. By the time Erap was impeached, the Abu Sayyaf’s only remaining hostages were American Jeffrey Schilling and Filipino divemaster Roland Ullah – two guys who were even suspected of connivance with their kidnappers.

Such talk about diversionary tactics has been fueled by reports that the Abu Sayyaf, which projects itself as a champion of Islamic fundamentalism, is in fact a military creation gone out of control, like the Red Scorpion Group and the Kuratong Baleleng. Abu Sayyaf chieftain Khadaffi Janjalani, notorious for his ruthlessness, was arrested a few years back and detained by the military but mysteriously escaped from Camp Aguinaldo, later resurfacing in Basilan.

Now the caper in Palawan has diverted our attention from the slow vote count, Joseph Estrada’s court cases and his request for comfortable jail accommodations (the latest for "resthouse arrest" – if we’re going to bend the rules, might as well bend all the way). And the administration has another crisis in its hands.

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No one should be surprised that the Abu Sayyaf has staged another daring kidnapping. The group has been ignored by the government for several months, despite warnings from various sectors that the terrorists were regrouping and replenishing their weaponry after the military offensive last year in Sulu.

While all the foreign hostages taken last year are now free, all the Abu Sayyaf commanders are also scot-free, and the bulk of the $20 million they got as ransom was never recovered. All that was recovered was $240,000 that two suspected Abu Sayyaf members tried to convert into pesos in a bank in Zamboanga.

Some individuals have accused the previous administration of pocketing up to $10 million of the ransom money – a charge that’s not surprising. If the accusations were true, that still leaves the Abu Sayyaf with $10 million. That’s more than P500 million at current exchange rates – enough to buy Commander Robot an orchard, with more than enough to spare for guns and ammunition, daily supplies, intelligence gathering and operational expenses of all the Abu Sayyaf factions.

Even P500 million, however, quickly runs out. What’s a terrorist to do? Launch another kidnapping, of course, since it has proved so lucrative in the past. And the group sure picked a juicy target. Palawan is one of our most popular tourist destinations. When foreigners ask me which places they should visit in this country, Palawan is always on my list.

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Why didn’t the military finish off the Abu Sayyaf last year? Soldiers were supposed to have sealed off all exit points of the fleeing terrorists on Sulu island. There was supposed to be a naval blockade. Yet the troops pulled back after two French journalists escaped. Afterwards the Abu Sayyaf was largely ignored despite its repeated threats to execute Schilling.

Yesterday there was supposed to be another naval blockade around the tiny island of Cagayan de Tawi-Tawi in the middle of the Sulu Sea, where the kidnappers were supposed to have stopped over from Puerto Princesa. Predictably, the kidnappers slipped past the blockade and even managed to separate their hostages into two groups and take them to Basilan and Sulu.

It’s going to be another long hostage drama. By the time it’s over, we’ll have a new Congress. And Erap may be back on Polk Street.