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THE
military admitted on Wednesday that the Abu Sayyaf Group
(ASG) is more dangerous than ever, although its
membership has gone down and it still has no known
leader.
Gen.
Alexander Yano, Armed Forces chief of staff, said the
Abu Sayyaf, whose membership has dwindled to just more
than 300, has evolved into a more dangerous group in the
wake of the absence of an overall leader.
“While
we have a loose Abu Sayyaf Group now, it presents itself
as a very dangerous and risky [organization] because
there are different groups trying to compete with each
other,” Yano said.
“Without
a central leadership, they can move in different groups
with their own vested interest or motivations, and
mostly these are for money,” he added.
Yano
cited the two recent cases of kidnappings in Sulu and
Basilan involving television journalist Ces Drilon and
the employees of the Basilan Electric Cooperative, who
remain in captivity.
“We feel
that with so many loose groupings, they also commit
atrocities and become very irritating. This is what
happened in the recent kidnapping in Sulu and in
Basilan,” he said.
Yano
said that being a headless organization, the Abu Sayyaf
degenerated further into a bandit group, whose only
objective now is to earn money through criminal
activities.
He said
the terror threat posed by the group is continuously
diminishing, as shown by the decline in the number of
its attacks in urban centers.
“Unlike
in previous kidnappings perpetrated by the group that
were orchestrated by a clear leadership, the recent
kidnappings were undertaken by young members without
central coordination…the fact that the main effort in
resolving the situation came from the National Police,
with the Armed Forces only playing a support role, is
indicative of the fact that the ASG is merely a local
peace-and-order problem,” Yano said.
He said
the group has also been isolated from foreign terrorist
groups, with its funding, training and logistics support
already cut.
Its
local support is also dwindling, forcing its members to
just seek refuge in the mountains and with their
relatives in Sulu and Basilan. |
