EDITORIAL — Derailed momentum

On the run, its leadership decimated, the Abu Sayyaf still manages to make its presence felt. Last Monday the terrorist group snatched a factory worker who was in a passenger jeepney, then grabbed seven construction workers who had hitched a ride on a dump truck in Parang town in Jolo.

On Thursday afternoon, when the bandits’ demand for a P5-million ransom was not met, six of the construction workers and the factory worker were decapitated. Two heads were delivered to an Army detachment; five others were sent to the headquarters of the 33rd Infantry Battalion in Parang. The bodies have been retrieved. The fate of the seventh construction worker is unknown.

The brutality is a trademark of the Abu Sayyaf, which has always preyed on soft targets. It has bombed Catholic churches and torched public markets. It has kidnapped, tortured and murdered priests, nuns and teachers. What twisted cause such inhumanity is supposed to advance, no one is sure. What is certain is that the Abu Sayyaf thrives on poverty, ignorance and lawlessness. Over the past months the government has made some inroads in improving life in Sulu, bringing development and some measure of law and order to one of the country’s most impoverished provinces. The military, meanwhile, finally succeeded in decapitating the group, killing its chieftain Khadaffy Janjalani and then his successor, Abu Sulaiman.

Yet the terrorists have managed to survive, partly because they are given sanctuary by groups identified with the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Moro National Liberation Front. Now a commander of an MNLF faction, who has been disowned by the main group after his recent attacks on the military, is moving around Sulu and is said to be maneuvering to head the Abu Sayyaf.

The attacks have once again derailed the momentum of development in Sulu. The government cannot allow the interruption to last long. Development efforts must continue together with the military offensive. Like other terrorist groups, the Abu Sayyaf is not content to kill; the act must be as gruesome as possible. Such ruthless acts should firm up the government’s resolve to wipe out this threat for good.