Only a few years ago, Basilan was being touted as a model in successful counterterrorism operations. With assistance from Uncle Sam, including the return of US troops to the country for the first time since the shutdown of their bases here, the Armed Forces of the Philippines flushed out Abu Sayyaf terrorists from their jungle lairs in Basilan. Khadaffy Janjalani, brother of the group’s founding leader, left the island, and flamboyant spokesman Abu Sabaya was eventually shot dead in the waters off the Zamboanga peninsula.
With the Abu Sayyaf neutralized, the Basilan airstrip was expanded and construction of a circumferential road for the island-province began. Fast-food giant Jollibee opened a branch in the province – a move seen as a gesture of faith that stability would hold and development would no longer be derailed.
Since then Janjalani has also been killed and the Abu Sayyaf has failed to regain its original strength. But lasting peace remains elusive on the island. Remnants of the Abu Sayyaf have trickled back and some elements of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front have made the province a base of operations. Teachers continue to be targets of kidnapping, disrupting much-needed public education, and other civil servants refuse to be assigned in Basilan due to security concerns. Most businessmen have stayed away from the province, preferring to wait for indications of long-term peace and order before investing in Basilan.
Over the weekend the fragile calm was shattered once again when an improvised explosive device went off in the town of Lamitan, destroying a small lodging house. Hours later, another improvised bomb was found in a hotel in Isabela while a third IED was discovered near a school in Lamitan on Sunday morning. Police said the incidents could be the handiwork of Abu Sayyaf extortionists.
The situation is not as bad as when Janjalani and his band held the province in the grip of terror. But the latest incidents, as well as attacks in recent years on both military and civilian targets all over Basilan, emphasize the need to maintain and consolidate hard-won gains. Even Armed Forces officers point out that a military solution, without accompanying efforts to spur economic activity and promote development, will not bring lasting peace in a hotbed of extremism. The latest attacks dramatize this point.