While busy with Abu Sayyaf, AFP closely monitoring RSM

Occupied by operations against the Abu Sayyaf bandits in Mindanao, the military is also kept busy in containing the threat posed by Islamic converts in the country.

Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon disclosed the military is closely monitoring the movements of Rajah Solaiman Movement (RSM), a group of Islam converts espousing a holy war against Christians and "non-believers."

Esperon made the disclosure amid the heightened security alert ahead of the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the US.

Esperon said there are 28 people closely watched by the military. He said they are all known members of the RSM who are "predisposed (to) using explosives."

RSM is a group of Christian converts to Islam believed to be working with the Abu Sayyaf terrorist group.

The group, along with the Abu Sayyaf, was tagged behind the February 2004 bombing of the SuperFerry 14 in Manila Bay that killed 116 people — the second-worst terrorist attack in Asia after the October 2002 nightclub bombings in Bali, Indonesia that killed 202 people.

Umar Patek and Dulmatin, the two suspects in the Bali bombings, have gone hiding in the dense jungles of Sulu under the protective custody of Abu Sayyaf chieftain Khaddafy Janjalani.

Esperon said the RSM had been monitored to be soliciting funds in an effort to recover from the losses it sustained from the recent arrests of their leaders.

Malacañang, on the other hand, said there would be no letup in the ongoing offensive against the Abu Sayyaf in the bid to capture the two Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) terrorists.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said they have to confirm yet if Janjalani and Patek were wounded in the recent skirmish with government troops in Patikul, Sulu.

"We will continue with the operations because Janjalani might really be there because of the large number of (Abu Sayyaf) forces there," Ermita said.

"Our objective is to get Janjalani, Patek and (Dulmatin)," he said.

Ermita made the declaration after one of the suspected terrorists involved in the Sept. 11 attacks called for a "jihad" and sympathized with Muslim insurgents in Mindanao. This was according to a video aired over an Arab television news network in the Middle East last Thursday.

At the same time, Ermita and Esperon assured the public that security forces are ready to thwart any terror attacks or destabilization attempts as President Arroyo left yesterday for a five-nation trip.

"The situation is much, much better now. Before there were so many destabilization attempts but now the President could leave without a heavy feeling because everything seems to be okay," Ermita said.

Ermita though admitted Mrs. Arroyo issued last-minute instructions to be on guard for the 9/11 anniversary.

Esperon added that aside from the military operations against the Abu Sayyaf in Sulu, they had been placed under full alert as a customary practice whenever the President embarks on an official trip abroad.

A senior anti-terrorism official, meanwhile, said there had been no major updates in the national threat board.

The official said there had been no specific threat monitored by security forces in Metro Manila and other urban centers in the country, as of yesterday.

But the latest intelligence reports said RSM recruits have "graduated" from their terrorism training, along with the Abu Sayyaf and renegade guerrillas of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), hardliners opposed to the ongoing peace negotiations with the government.

Reports said the recruits finished their terror training in bomb making and explosives techniques in Mt. Cararao, Lanao del Sur last April.

Bomb experts from the JI had bankrolled and supervised the training, the intelligence report added.

Esperon, on the other hand, said the ongoing offensive against the Abu Sayyaf in Sulu is pre-emptive.

"That’s one group less that would conduct bombings," Esperon said.

Intelligence officials pointed out the Indonesian-based JI terror network has been coordinating efforts to set off a series of bombing attacks in the region, including the Philippines, through its local terrorist counterparts, the Abu Sayyaf and the RSM.

A top regional security official, Australia’s Counter-Terrorism Ambassador Les Luc, said the al-Qaeda-linked JI remains the biggest terrorist threat to Southeast Asia.

Luc conceded the JI remains the greatest threat with the largest possibility of launching further terror attacks on countries in the region with the help of the Abu Sayyaf and the RSM recruits. — With Aurea Calica