It’s been over a month since the Abu Sayyaf bandits first crept up unnoticed on the shores of Inabanga town, Bohol, and the military still has to catch the last two remaining members who are now said to be stragglers desperate to hitch a ride back to Mindanao to escape the police-military dragnet in the province.
In fact, the hunt has yet to produce its last two targets when in came another travel advisory — this time from Great Britain that warned its citizens not to proceed to southern Cebu, particularly the towns of Badian and Dalaguete where they may fall prey to terrorist and criminal elements other than the Abu Sayyaf.
The Abu Sayyaf may not have been mentioned by name, but it’s not too difficult to imagine them being referenced among the “terrorist groups” warned by the British Embassy to its citizens, some of whom may be enjoying the sights of Cebu by the time the advisory came out.
As per latest word, the two Abu Sayyaf stragglers are without food and drink for the past few weeks which make them easy targets for even ordinary citizens wishing to collect the bounty on their heads placed by President Rodrigo Duterte.
The last Abu Sayyaf bandit caught, Saad Samad Kiram, was arrested by police after he came out of hiding to look for food. He died a day after he was arrested under admittedly suspicious circumstances, but a lot of Filipinos are only too willing to say “good riddance.”
It’s to the best interest of the Boholanos and their neighbors in Central Visayas for the police and military to arrest the two stragglers and ship them off to stand trial in Manila where they can share living space with the drug dealers in the National Penitentiary.
The bandits simply cannot continue hiding and playing a game of cat and mouse with the military who may have orders to shoot them on sight even at their present sorry state.
Their lifeline is in faraway Sulu province in Mindanao where a nongovernment organization allegedly claimed that officials benefit and protect the Abu Sayyaf.
The capture of these two bandits may not immediately convince the UK, US and other foreign embassies to change their advisories and give the “all clear” signal to their citizens, but it will show to them and the rest of the world that the Philippines is more than capable of handling bandits and terrorists on its own.
And it will also show to the world that even in the face of brazen, vicious, wanton violence perpetrated by these bandits and terrorists, the police and the military can wage war on them while still following due process and the rule of law without degenerating into their level of lawlessness.
Rather than simply fight fire with fire, the government can tap these stragglers for information that can lead to the dismantling of the Abu Sayyaf structure and its protectors.
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