Arroyo sets 90-day deadline to erase Abu Sayyaf from RP

Arroyo sets 90-day deadline to erase Abu Sayyaf from RP

Agencies, Manila

President Gloria Arroyo set a 90-day deadline on Friday for the
military to crush the Abu Sayyaf Moro guerrilla group in the
southern Philippines, as opposition grew to the planned
deployment of U.S. troops.

Arroyo, who made the announcement during a visit to a military
camp outside Manila, said the deadline had nothing to do with the
future deployment of U.S. troops on southern Jolo island -- the
Abu Sayyaf's stronghold -- to help Filipino soldiers fight the
guerillas.

"I have ... given the military a deadline for the Abu Sayyaf:
90 days," Arroyo told reporters. "They follow deadlines very
well. I told them to capture Buliok in three days and they did.
So I suppose if they do the proper allocation of resources they
will be able to finish the threat of the Abu Sayyaf."

"If they have the proper allocation of resources, they'll be
able to finish the Abu Sayyaf in 90 days," Arroyo said, citing
the capture in mid-February of the stronghold of another
guerrilla group in the south, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front
(MILF) after a week-long campaign.

The armed forces chief of staff, Gen. Dionisio Santiago, who
was with Arroyo, told reporters the military will relocate forces
to beef up troops in Sulu province, which includes Jolo island,
assess command procedures and review tactics, especially
intelligence gathering.

"We'll set goals, find out the reasons for non-accomplishment.

Commanders will be replaced if they are not performing,"
Santiago said, adding the 90-day deadline was "feasible with an
element of luck."

He said the Abu Sayyaf, which once included up to 1,200
rebels, has been reduced to 460 members, including 380 in Sulu
and 80 on neighboring Basilan island. "The smaller they become
the more difficult it is to track them," he said.

Lt. Gen. Narciso Abaya, head of military forces in the south,
said that his troops were "on target" to crush the Abu Sayyaf but
he declined to give details about planned operations.

There is growing debate in the Philippines about the planned
deployment of U.S. troops on the island of Jolo to assist and
advise Filipino soldiers hunting the Abu Sayyaf.

Nationalist groups have criticized the decision as a violation
of the constitution, while Muslim leaders in the area warn the
Americans will be met with hostility.

Abaya said U.S. troops could arrive in Jolo by April.

The Abu Sayyaf has has been a thorn in the side of the
government for about a decade, kidnapping Christians and
foreigners and holding them hostage in the jungles of the
southern islands.

The group is still holding three Indonesian seamen and four
Filipina Christian preachers on Jolo despite a massive manhunt.

Philippine Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes is visiting the
United States to discuss the planned U.S. deployment in Jolo.

Asked about the opposition to the deployment, Arroyo said: "I
don't react to the statements of other people."

She said the planned deployment was "still under
consultation," noting the details of the U.S. troops' arrival had
not yet been confirmed.

Another U.S. Special Forces group is already training
Philippine soldiers in the southern city of Zamboanga near Jolo,
but Arroyo stressed the exercises were different from joint
operations.

Military officials meanwhile said an Abu Sayyaf member, Kamar
Jaafar, involved in a string of kidnappings and killings, had
been arrested on Thursday on the southern island of Basilan.

Santiago conceded that the military was being hampered by a
"lack of sophisticated equipment". He said deployments against
the Abu Sayyaf had been disrupted by fighting with the MILF.