RP sets 90-day deadline to wipe out kidnappers
RP sets 90-day deadline to wipe out kidnappers
MANILA (AFP): The Philippine government said on Sunday it had
set an ambitious 90-day deadline for its security forces to
"neutralize kidnap-for-ransom activities" across the country.
Interior Secretary Jose Lina has also ordered an "intensified
security and mobile patrol" in tourist areas across the country,
the presidential palace said in a statement.
The order was part of the deadline set by the recently
organized National Peace and Order Council, which comprises the
police, the armed forces and the justice department, the palace
said.
"We need to harmonize and integrate the actions being taken by
these various groups to produce higher effectiveness in our
campaign against kidnapping for ransom," Lina said in the
statement, which did not specify when the 90-day period began.
The Philippine military has been severely criticized for
failing to end a five-week-old hostage crisis in the southern
jungles involving Muslim Abu Sayyaf rebels.
Abu Sayyaf gunmen snatched 20 Filipinos and Americans from the
Dos Palmas beach resort in the western Philippines on May 27.
Thirteen hostages have been freed or rescued while two Filipinos
have been killed.
The rebels, who claim to have executed one of the three
American hostages, later snatched four hospital staff and 15
plantation workers, two of whom were also found beheaded last
month.
Gangs
Other kidnap gangs in Manila have also taken advantage of the
Abu Sayyaf crisis by abducting mostly Filipino-Chinese
businessmen, adding to the embarrassment of the national police.
Police said on Sunday they had arrested a suspected Abu Sayyaf
rebel who took part in an attack on the Pearl Farm beach resort
in the southern island of Samal three days before the Dos Palmas
raid.
Two Filipinos were killed in that attack.
The armed forces on Saturday sacked Brig. Gen. Romeo
Dominguez, the general commanding some 5,000 troops deployed
against the Abu Sayyaf kidnappers on Basilan island.
Officials said Dominguez been replaced by Brig. Gen. Glicerio
Sua, who was said to be more familiar with Basilan's mountainous
jungle terrain.
"We just want to have a commander familiar in the area," said
Brigadier General Edilberto Adan, a military spokesman. "(Sua) is
in a good position to accomplish our mission."
Police and military intelligence were Sunday checking on field
reports that Abu Sayyaf leaders Abu Sabaya and Khadaffy Janjalani
had slipped past a military cordon in Basilan for nearby
Zamboanga city.