EDITORIAL - Crushing the Abu Sayyaf

If words could kill, the Abu Sayyaf would have been annihilated many years ago. Since the extremists made their presence felt with their deadly bomb attacks in the early 1990s, every president has vowed to “crush” or “destroy” the group.

Government forces have since killed the group’s Afghanistan-trained founding chieftain Abdurajak Abubakar Janjalani and his brother Khadaffy. Several commanders have also been killed in a succession of military operations, among them the flamboyant Aldam Tilao, a.k.a. Abu Sabaya, Ghalib “Commander Robot” Andang, and most recently during the retaking of Marawi, Isnilon Hapilon, tagged as the Southeast Asian “emir” of the terrorist Islamic State.

Yet the Abu Sayyaf always manages to recover from decapitation and to regroup, with a new head always emerging. The challenge now faced by an administration that was borne to power on a platform of peace and order is how to break this cycle and sustain battle victories.

The Abu Sayyaf has engaged in a kidnapping spree, raising millions of dollars in ransom and dampening tourism and investments in Mindanao. It has bombed churches, schools and government targets, murdered and raped with abandon, and tortured and mutilated priests and nuns. Its team-up with Maute terrorists razed much of Marawi.

Yet today the Abu Sayyaf is again being eyed as the perpetrator of twin bombings during mass last Sunday morning that killed at least 21 people and wounded about 100 others at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Cathedral in Sulu’s capital Jolo. Specifically, security officials are pointing to a faction of the group, called Ajang-Ajang, as the likely culprit.

For most people, it’s the first time to hear of Ajang-Ajang. It seems that as soon as one group’s propensity for violence appears to be weakening, a faction breaks away and forms a new one that rivals the original in virulence.

At the moment, the focus of the government is on catching those behind the bombing of the Jolo cathedral. But the government must also intensify other measures that will deprive terrorists of their community support network and address the roots of that support. The Abu Sayyaf has survived numerous military offensives and refuses to be crushed. It can’t be because its firepower is superior to that of state forces.