THE military said on Wednesday that it will not stop the ongoing operations against the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) bandits, who are holding kidnap victims in the provinces of Sulu and Basilan.
Lt. Col. Noel Detoyato, Armed Forces Public Affairs Office chief, said there will be no Halloween break for soldiers who are pursuing the bandits in the two provinces.
“Our law-enforcement operations against the bandits will continue. There will be no letup in our campaign against these lawless elements,” he said.
Detoyato said the deliberate operations being conducted by members of the Joint Task Group Sulu and even forces in Basilan will continue even during the observance of All Saints’ and All Souls’ days.
Detoyato said the relentless operations against the ASG is also in compliance with the directive of the Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Hernando Iriberri to make life difficult for all enemies of the state.
“This is in line with the guidance of General Iriberri to all military commanders to make their respective areas of responsibility inhospitable to all threat groups,” he said.
ASG bandits have been monitored crisscrossing Basilan and Sulu provinces to evade military operations.
Currently, the ASG is still holding several hostages, including Dutch Elwold Horn, one of the two bird-watchers snatched by the bandits in February 2012 in Tawi-Tawi province. His companion, Swiss Lorenzo Vinciguerra, escaped from the bandits in December 2014.
There are also reports saying that Norwegian Kjartan Sekkingstad, Canadians John Ridsdel and Robert Hall, and Filipina Maritess Flor are being held by the ASG in Sulu.
The four were seized by the bandits from the Ocean View Resort on Samal Island in Davao del Norte last month.
Aside from the foreigners, the ASG is also holding at least 10 other kidnap victims, most of them Filipinos.
“Our troops are on the ground, we don’t want to jeopardize the operations,” Detoyato said.
Earlier, Defense Secretary Voltaire T. Gazmin ordered the military in Sulu and Basilan to finish off the ASG problem in Sulu and Basilan by conducting continuing operations.
Even the local officials of the two provinces have already called on the government to end the reign of terror and criminal activities by the group.