The government should harness all its armed forces resources to wipe out the Abu Sayyaf. It’s not enough to express regrets and apologize to the German government over the killing of its national Jurgen Kantner by the Abu Sayyaf who beheaded him after failing to get a P30-million demand for his release.
Although there is no official confirmation of the Abu Sayyaf acting under the aegis of the dreaded Islamic State terrorists, the Muslim bandits’ atrocities committed against their captives are comparable to ISIS. Captives are kept for days while ransom is negotiated. The hostages are killed when the victims’ relatives fail to come up with the money.
Kantner, a 70-year-old German national, was abducted by the Abus when his yacht strayed into Sulu waters. His female companion was killed on board when she resisted the bandits. Warnings have been posted by Philippine authorities against sailing and trekking in the deep south of Mindanao where the Abu Sayyaf ply their nefarious trade like the Somalian pirates.
Now, if the Duterte administration throws all its armed forces against the Abus and wipe them out, I don’t think there will be any outcry about extrajudicial killings. The people, in fact, will welcome the end of the notorious Abu Sayyaf. Not even the United Nations and international human rights groups can condemn the all-out war against the savage Sayyaf. The same focus and attention given to the relentless war on drugs should also be carried out by the Duterte administration.
The beheading of the German Kantner is not the first in the long and bloody history of the Abu Sayyaf. Other foreigners and locals have lost their heads to the savage bandits. Several years back, two American missionaries and another American were abducted by the Abu Sayyaf. The wife of the missionary survived but her husband was killed during a rescue attempt by government troops. An American tourist with the group was beheaded. This is kidnapping with murder and certainly when the death penalty must be imposed to the fullest extent of the law. “An eye for an eye,” goes the biblical passage.
As a matter of policy, government does not negotiate nor pay ransom to the bandits. But the government can put up bounty money for the capture, dead or alive, of members of this barbaric group. Bounty money on the heads of the Abu Sayyaf can serve as incentives for rouge cops who are going to be deployed in Basilan and terrorist-infested areas in Mindanao. Because the policemen have families in Metro Manila, their assignment in Mindanao should only be for a year. They can be replaced by the next batch of scalawag cops. Even a short stint in dangerous Basilan or Sulu should be enough to deter erring cops from committing the same mistakes.
Metro Manila’s monstrous traffic mess
How do you solve Metro Manila’s monstrous traffic problem? Some measures have been taken by the government but so far the traffic gridlock has only been eased to a small degree. It has not been totally solved. It would be too much to expect the authorities to solve this problem that has been allowed to fester by past administrations. Phasing out old jeepneys is not the answer. An efficient public rail transport system which other Asian cities like Singapore, Bangkok and Taipei have is the only solution in sight.
Commuter groups who suffer the daily travails of travel to and from work have complained that the new train carriages from China are dangerous because they do not seem to fit the rails for which they are rolling on. They feel uneasy with the ride not being smooth and running at a slow speed of 30 kilometers per hour. That’s nearly as slow when commuters take the torturous road traffic on Edsa during rush hours.
There are suggestions for jeepney drivers to form themselves into consortiums or cooperatives and operate public utility transport like the brand new point-to-point buses already proving popular among commuters. This will of course take huge capital outlay. But the government could perhaps provide loans for displaced jeepney drivers to start up their public utility buses. This is better than for them to drive buses and jeepneys and taxis with them paying exorbitant boundary fees to the owners and operators who don’t give them a break with the stiff boundary system when gasoline and oil prices go up.
Metro Manila’s monstrous traffic can also be traced to the increasing volume of vehicles being sold. Not just the rich have two or three cars nowadays. Even the middle class need two cars to get around the number coding in order to get to work and bring their children to school. The sale of motorcycles is also up because there is no decent public transport system and sensible traffic management. While a few elevated highways have been constructed, there are not enough roads to accommodate the heavy volume of vehicles. This can all be traced to the lack of urban planning and forward thinking to cope with a growing population in the metropolis.