See what happens when you make crime pay. The last prominent hostage in Sulu was Benjamin Dolorfino, who insisted he and more than a dozen companions, including a Cabinet undersecretary, were merely “hosted” by members of the Moro National Liberation Front in Panamao in February last year. Dolorfino and the other hostages were freed only after their captors were given P450,000 as “compensation” for the deaths of several MNLF members in what the government described as a “mistaken encounter” a few weeks earlier.
The MNLF “hosts” and their leader, Habier Malik, went on a rampage later in the year and is now a fugitive. Dolorfino, at the time a major general who headed the military command in Metro Manila, was rewarded with the command of the entire Philippine Marines.
Now another man with links to the MNLF is in the national spotlight for yet another hostage incident. Mayor Alvarez Isnaji of Indanan in Sulu and his son Haider are being held without bail at Camp Crame for the kidnapping of ABS-CBN news anchor Ces Oreña-Drilon, two cameramen and a professor of the Mindanao State University.
Drilon, her relatives and the police said that at least P5 million was paid by her family in exchange for cameraman Angelo Valderama, who was the first to be released. The police presented photos to bolster its charge that P3 million was pocketed by Isnaji and his son, whose cell phone conversations in connection with the ransom were reportedly intercepted by security officers.
As the Philippine National Police builds its case against the Abu Sayyaf kidnappers and the brains of the caper, some public officials have warned that Isnaji enjoys popularity among MNLF members in Sulu. But political strength does not mean immunity from prosecution. It is not a license to commit crime with impunity.
The nation should allow the kidnap victims and the police to present their case; Isnaji and his son will have their day in court. Any cause that is financed through the misery of others cannot be legitimate. The government must stop allowing those who grab hostages for ransom to get away with their crime.