EDITORIAL - Kidnappers’ haven

Philippine bandits are being blamed for the kidnapping of a Filipina hotel worker and Chinese tourist from a resort in Malaysia’s Singamata Island, off the coastal town of Semporna. The captives were reportedly brought to an island in Tawi-Tawi and may be moved to Abu Sayyaf strongholds in the mountains of Sulu.

The attack should remind the Philippine government that this scourge is still waiting to be eradicated despite several high-profile ransom kidnappings in the past that caused national embarrassment and ruined the country’s travel industry. Gunmen are still holding several European hostages in Sulu. Last November, Philippine bandits attacked Pom-pom Island off Semporna, killed a Taiwanese tourist and seized his wife, freeing her only after a month. In recent years, the bandits have seized journalists and attacked even Red Cross workers.

Kidnapping persists because it remains highly lucrative and because governance remains weak in the conflict areas. Fourteen years ago this month, gunmen seized 21 foreign tourists and local workers from a resort in Sipadan, Malaysia. The hostages were turned over to the Abu Sayyaf in Sulu, which freed the hostages in batches amid reports of ransom payments amounting to $3 million from Malaysia for its citizens and $1 million per head for six Western European captives, paid by the Libyan government. During the crisis, the bandits also held hostage a German and French journalists. Military offensives and more ransom payments led to the release of all the hostages by September 2000.

The hefty ransom payments emboldened the Abu Sayyaf to stage more kidnappings. The bandits raided an island resort in Palawan in May 2001, seizing mostly Filipino hostages and three Americans. Amid unconfirmed reports of ransom payments, several Filipinos walked to freedom at the start of the crisis. Two of the Americans were later killed, one of them during the military rescue a year later. A Filipina nurse was also killed.

Those kidnappings prompted the Arroyo administration to allow the return to the country of US troops a decade after the shutdown of their Philippine bases. US-backed Philippine forces subsequently flushed out the Abu Sayyaf from its jungle lairs in Basilan and decapitated the group as it retreated to Sulu.

Despite those setbacks, the Abu Sayyaf survives today, sustained by inefficient government and weak law enforcement. In the wake of the latest attack, the government must act decisively to dispel perceptions that the southern Philippines is a haven for kidnappers.