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.