It was said often enough that there would have been no need to call in the Americans to fight our home-grown terrorists if the Armed Forces of the Philippines had done its job well. But there was a second hostage crisis that was taking too long to resolve. Aldam Tilao – the notorious Abu Sabaya – was thumbing his nose at authorities. Abu Sayyaf kidnappers were decapitating captives and dragging more hostages including two Americans across the jungles of Basilan. In the eyes of the public, the AFP bungled that hostage crisis big time, from the raid on Dos Palmas in Palawan to the Abu Sayyaf’s escape from a hospital compound in Basilan. Filipinos seemed almost relieved about the prospect of the rescue operations being turned over to American soldiers.
So the US troops arrived, an Ame-rican hostage was rescued but another was lost together with a Filipino nurse. Sabaya was peppered with bullets and the Abu Sayyaf fled Basilan. Some guerrillas moved to Zamboanga, but most regrouped in Sulu, teaming up with Andang’s group.
This time the Americans are supposed to help wipe out what’s left of the Abu Sayyaf. If there’s no one left to wipe out, there won’t be this controversy about combat duty for American troops. There may even be no need to deploy them in Sulu; they can confine themselves to actual training exercises in Zamboanga. The AFP received enough counter-terrorism training in Basilan. Can it do the job alone in Sulu?