RP's Basilan island, a sanctuary for rebels

RP's Basilan island, a sanctuary for rebels

By Rosario Liquicia

ISABELA, Philippines (Reuter): The lush mountains on the
southern Philippine island of Basilan have long nourished
villagers but are now also fertile ground for an extremist Moslem
group the military calls a national menace.

Deprived of electricity and other basic services, Basilan has
remained largely undeveloped and isolated, making it a natural
sanctuary for rebels.

Basilan governor Gerry Salapuddin says no amount of firepower
can totally rid the area of rebels and lawless elements unless
the problem of poverty is addressed first.

The radical Moslem group Abu Sayyaf traces its roots to the
villages of Basilan, where a small, pudgy Moslem preacher named
Abdurajak Janjalani lured poor and mostly unschooled youngsters
to join his army, the military says.

Janjalani, who reputedly studied in Libya and Saudi Arabia,
disappeared after a military assault on one of his main bases on
nearby Jolo island and his whereabouts are not known.

About 2,000 troops have been mobilized to flush out dozens of
rebels hiding on Sampinit mountain and holding a kidnapped Roman
Catholic priest as a human shield after killing 15 innocent
Christians last month.

Salapuddin said the birth of the new rebel group, named after
a Moslem revolutionary but which also means "sword bearer", was a
result of long years of neglect by the national government of
Moslem communities.

"No amount of military action can solve the problem," said
Salapuddin, himself a former commander of the Moro National
Liberation Front (MNLF).

"This is a battle of winning the hearts and minds of the
people. And to win them we have to give them what they need --
basic services, infrastructure, economic development," he said in
an interview.

Poorest region

Basilan is one of the predominantly Moslem provinces that
comprise Western Mindanao, the poorest region in the whole of the
Philippines, according to a United Nations Development Program
(UNDP) Human Development Report.

It said Western Mindanao lags all the regions in the
Philippines and is comparable to Zimbabwe in terms of human
development. In contrast, metropolitan Manila has the same human
development status as economic tiger South Korea.

Life expectancy in the Moslem region is 14 years shorter than
in the capital, the report said.

Spanish Roman Catholic priest Bernardo Blanco, who was
kidnapped last year by Abu Sayyaf rebels, agrees the lack of
basic services is partly to blame for the rise of a rebel group
like the Abu Sayyaf.

"To me the most important thing is to make good roads so the
products they have there they can sell," he said in an interview
in Manila, where he was reassigned after being moved out of
Basilan after the kidnapping.

Blanco, 66, was abducted as he was driving home to his parish
in Matarling, west of Isabela, the capital of Basilan, in March
1993. He escaped from his captors after 49 days.

He said he had seen very little government-sponsored
development in the province during the 16 years he spent there.

But more than poverty, Blanco said, it is the power of the gun
that has driven some Moslems fighting for an independent Moroland
(Moslem nation), into banditry.

"They knew that if they had arms, they can have all the money
they want," he said.

Apart from the Abu Sayyaf, other armed groups in the area
include breakaway forces of the MNLF, which waged a separatist
war in the early 1970s that killed at least 50,000 people, mostly
civilians.

The MNLF has distanced itself from the Abu Sayyaf and
condemned the radical group's kidnapping and extortion
activities.

The MNLF leadership has warned its guerrillas not to get
involved in the fighting between government troops and the Abu
Sayyaf but some breakaway forces were reported to have aided the
extremist rebels.

The MNLF and the government are trying to forge a permanent
solution to the Moslem rebellion in the south in peace talks held
under the auspices of the Organization of the Islamic Conference.

Salapuddin says the key to the problem is economic
development. "For as long as this is not given a big boost and
unqualified support by the national government, this problem will
come and go," he said.