EDITORIAL - Finish them off

President Arroyo may vow to send dozens of convicted kidnappers to the lethal injection chamber, but the most notorious of them all are still out there. The Abu Sayyaf, which combines banditry with religious extre-mism, continues to blacken the country’s image abroad, particularly as the international community battles terrorism.

This is why every minor success against the Abu Sayyaf is welcome news. Last week Army troops rescued four of the Abu Sayyaf’s hostages – hospital worker Joel Guillo and farmers Reynaldo Ariston, Ruben Baldesamos and Rodrigo Solon. Guillo was kidnapped June 2 while the three were taken days later from a coconut plantation in Lantawan, Basilan.

The Abu Sayyaf, however, is still holding on to other hostages, among them two American missionaries from Wichita, Kansas who were part of a group abducted May 27 from an upscale resort in Palawan. Members of the Army’s 32nd Infantry Battalion clashed with the Abu Sayyaf last week in the Lantawan village of Lumbang. In the ensuing firefight, a mortar shell hit a house, killing a seven-year-old boy. Earlier, four other coconut plantation workers escaped from the kidnappers. The fleeing bandits seized four more farmers in Lantawan, beheading two of them.

President Arroyo reportedly wants to discuss the problem of terrorism at the leaders’ summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in China. She may find herself explaining why Abu Sayyaf guerrillas continue to elude Philippine troops. Since last year the military has been launching a "full-scale offensive" against these bandits. None of the top Abu Sayyaf commanders, however, has been caught. No ransom money has been recovered. And the only hostages who get rescued are those who can’t afford to pay ransom. What we got was a congressional investigation that military officers groused merely demoralized their troops.

Soldiers are dying in the hinterlands of Basilan and Sulu, and the heart of the nation goes out to those who risk their lives to make the country a more peaceful place. But clearly there is room for improvement in the battle to neutralize the Abu Sayyaf. By finishing off these terrorists in her own backyard, the President and commander-in-chief can show her administration’s determination to fight terrorism.