GRP Declares All-Out War vs Abu Sayyaf Terrorists -- At Last!

Manila – The highly awaited maximum offensive against the al-Qaeda-linked kidnapping syndicate Abu Sayyaf has finally been launched, the day after the release of Eugenio Vagni, the Italian engineer of the Geneva-based International Red Cross, who’s been held captive for half a year in the jungles of Mindanao.

It is about time to destroy the Abu Sayyaf. This group has done nothing but destroy people’s lives, bringing shame and infamy to the Philippines in general, and in Mindanao in particular.

“This is a fair warning to all,” Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro told mediamen, “another kidnapping incident will no longer stop our operations, we will no longer be stopped.”

“The total destruction of the terrorist and kidnappers will be a great legacy of this administration,” Senator Rodolfo Biazon, chair of the Senate committee on national defense and security, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Biazon, former chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, presciently added that “This effort should be supported not only with personnel and logistics required but also with intelligence funds.”

The President, said Biazon, “should reallocate part of the PhP 650 million intelligence funds of the Office of the President to the AFP and PNP [Philippine National Police], and require those agencies to properly account for the use of the funds afterward.”

Even those on the Abu Sayyaf turf hate their guts. “We cannot just allow them to continue terrorizing the province with their criminal and terroristic activities,” said Sulu Gov. Abdulsakur Tan.

Biazon photo courtesy of the U.S. Embassy. This story originally appeared in AllVoices.

Your comments and site links are welcome