It has been 179 days since the International Committee of the Red Cross ( ICRC ) representatives were kidnapped by the dreaded Abu Sayyaf group. this groups are thought to be linked to the even more dreaded terrorist group Jimaah Islamiyah and the of course the Al Qaeda network. the have release recently the last of their 3 captives from the ICRC, Eugenio Vagni. There were no reasons yet as to how and why he was released, but the good news that he is already safe.
The Abu Sayyaf is just one of the new groups which arose in the war stricken Mindanao. This western part of the country have long struggled with tribal wars, political wars and rebellion. There is slightly no glimpse of peace in this supposed promised land, as the Minadanaoans would say. This land is indeed full of promises. This is the only part of the Philippines where storms would seldom pass, agriculture is so vast and the land is intact and mostly plain. The Philippines is composed of three major island, Luzon Visayas and Mindanao, they say that Mindanao can survive and will even be more prosperous even if it separates from the Philippines; but that is a totally absurd idea..
Mindanao as you see today, specially in the rebel and terrorist infested areas remains to be in decrepit condition as it was 50 years ago. When you travel by land, many places there remains to be in boonies state. You cannot expect prosperity in this place because probably of its present peace and order condition which is very unstable. In order for Mindanao to prosper, there should be peace, and this calls for the government to intervene. In these areas, people bring their guns more everyday than they would with their cellular phones.
The government has to make a choice whether to declare total war or seriously negotiate for the sake of peace and prosperity. There was a time in Pres. Joseph Estrada's time that the government declared a total war against the MILF in the area. The government of course won the fight and has recovered all the territories that these rebels claimed to be for their camps. The government haowever may have won the battle but not the war. The government can really control the land if they just want to. The area in question is not even a third of the entire Philippines, and it is quite improbable that the Philippine Army cannot control this strip.
We know for certain that maintaining a war is so expensive no matter where you are. In some areas in Philippine government, were there are expenses, someone is benefiting from it. Just a wild guess, could it be that those who are in charge in the government, probably in the military are just milking on this war scenes in Mindanao? they don't want to put a stop to this problem because they benefit from it in terms of money? I don't know, we can just speculate.
If I recall it right, the government has spent 2 billion pesos in the total war under Joseph Estrada term. You can just imagine the huge expense that we are bestowing in Mindanao just to pacify the people there. I am not so sure however if we are really pacifying the rebels or the insatiable generals overseeing the situation. I was born in Mindanao and I grew up there, I know some colonels who live like kings in our neighborhood, you can just expect how the generals would live like.
It took Vagni to remain captive in the hands of the Abu Sayyaf for more than 6 months with no military rescue operation done. Did the Abu Sayyaf just changed their minds? I do not see any reason why we can't obliterate banditry in Mindano if there is assiduous pursuit.
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