Laying his nets under the night sky, Brando Cervantes often gazed across thewaters at the golden lights of the exclusive Dos Palmas resort. What would it belike to spend time there, a fisherman among the rich and the foreign, playingtennis, taking a jacuzzi, sipping cocktails? At 4 a.m. on May 27, Cervantes waschecking his nets with helper Alvics Cabilo, 21, when over the horizon came thethrobbing of huge horsepower, more powerful than anything normally found in thewaters off the Philippines’ rugged western Palawan province. The speedboat hadno lights; only when it pulled alongside, its rolling wake slapping his woodenoutrigger, did Cervantes see the 50-mm cannon rigged on the bows, the 24 men injungle fatigues and balaclavas, the M-16s pointed at his chest. “Take us to DosPalmas,” demanded a voice with a southern Mindanao accent. Cervantes was to gethis visit after all.
The 23-year-old led the armed men, members of the feared Abu Sayyaf guerrillagroup, to the resort, where they rounded up 20 hostages17 Filipinos and 3Americansand transported them to their lair on Basilan Island in the farsouth of the archipelago. Upon arriving they seized 10 more hostages, mostlyfishermen. Then the bloodbath began. At week’s end, the group had been attackedby the Philippine military and lost up to 14 fighters, including supreme AbuSayyaf leader Khadaffy Janjalani. They raised the stakes by storming a churchand a hospital and taking 200 more captives reports weresketchy, but the toll after 36 hours of fighting was up to 29 dead, including 13soldiers and 5 civilians, and an unknown number wounded. Some of the originalhostages have escaped.
For the Philippines, and anyone who has visited its idyllic resorts, the episodewas shockingly familiar. A little more than a year ago, the same group of Muslimrebels kidnapped 21 people, including 9 Malaysians, 8 Europeans, 2 SouthAfricans and 2 Filipinos, from the eastern Malaysian diving resort of Sipadan.Over the following four months, they auctioned them off for a whispered total ofup to $25 million in ransom money. Bad enough that it happened again: even morefrightening, it was clear from day one of the most recent crisis that theresolution would be swifter and a lot more brutal. Over the past year, therebels spent their ill-gotten riches on firepower: M-16s, Uzis, mortars,cannons, jeeps and the 50-seat speedboat which, with three monstrous 750-horsepower outboards, could outrun anything in the Philippine navy. The factionof Abu Sayyaf (literally “Bearer of the Sword”) responsible for the raid has anunparalleled reputation for ruthlessness: when Philippine troops attacked lastyear, the group beheaded two hostages, including a Catholic priest, after firstgouging out their eyes.
Added to that are political concerns. The Philippines has a new President,Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, and she announced from the start that she had nointention of suffering the humiliation dealt predecessor Joseph Estrada lastyear. Estrada succumbed to Malaysian and European pleas to hold the troops backand allowed Libya to broker a ransom deal. As a result, the ragtag band of oneyear ago has grown into a kidnapping army that can only get more audacious withevery success. With Washington’s backing, Arroyo refused all negotiation andordered 5,000 troops into the scattered Sulu archipelago to, in the words ofoperational commander Brigadier General Romeo Dominguez, “rescue and destroy.”Unlike last year, the Abu Sayyaf has made no attempt to pretend the kidnappingsare for any higher ideal than money. Group spokesman Abu Sabaya has talkedbefore of the value of U.S. captives. “One American is worth 10 Europeans,” hedeclared last year. But the only bounty being talked about is the $2 millionArroyo has put on the Abu Sayyaf leaders’ heads.
Despite the fearsome reputation of the Abu Sayyaf, cemented in 1995 when thegroup massacred 53 civilians in a two-hour rampage in the southern town of Ipil,it is far from being a disciplined precision force. Cervantes, the fisherman,says the guerrillas were way off course when they spotted his lights. “They keptasking where Dos Palmas was,” he says. The sky was getting light when theyfinally arrived at 5 a.m. on tiny Arreceffi island. Disarming the securityguards, the gunmen went straight for the cabanas on stilts over the water, whichgo for $720 per couple for two nights. They kicked down the doors and marched 20guests out at gunpoint, including an eight-year-old Filipino boy and an Americanmissionary couple who were celebrating their 18th wedding anniversary. Then thethugs started on the mini-bars and closets, grabbing sodas, nuts and chocolate,T shirts, lingerie and sunglasses. “Clothes were strewn around the rooms,” sayspolice Inspector Rodolfo Amurao. The raiders were heading for the resort kitchenwhen they were called back by their leader. “Enough, enough, we have to go,” heshouted, according to Cervantes, who watched them leave. Things only got worseon the return. The rebels discovered they didn’t have enough fuel and had tobeach their precious speedboat on the island of Cagayan and commandeer asluggish fishing boat for the remaining 300 km.
Five days after the tourists were taken, Philippine soldiers in Basilan stumbledacross the kidnappers as the hostages were taking a morning wash in a jungleriver. It was the start of a small war. After the first firefight, 2 soldierswere killed and 14 wounded, while up to 12 guerrillas were left dead or injured.According to a source inside the group, the Abu Sayyaf held a meeting in mid-battle to decide whether they should start killing their captives. “Maybe wewill stage an execution,” Abu Sabaya told a local radio station via cell phone,adding: “Welcome to the party.” As the skirmishes continued overnight withhelicopter gunships backing the government troops, the guerrillas picked upreinforcements from among their 1,100 fighters in the Sulu archipelago. As thebody count mountedby Saturday evening, scores of soldiers, civilians andrebels, including commander Yusup Nadjal, were lying dead on the roads and inthe jungle, or expiring in a local hospitalthe Abu Sayyaf stormed St.Peter’s Catholic church and the hospital, placed snipers in the church belfryand on the hospital roof and announced they had taken 200 more hostages. “We arepart of an Abu Sayyaf suicide squad,” fighter Abu Sulaiman told local radio. “Ifyou do not stop the military action, we will execute the hostages.” A group ofsix Dominican nuns found themselves among the new captives.
As troops surrounded the two buildings, four Filipinos from the original hostagegroup escaped, including wounded Dos Palmas security guard Eldrin Morales andR.J. Recio, 8, who left his father Luis behind. The gunships and troop carriersthen moved in, picking off the snipers and pounding the two buildings. Thesurviving rebels appeared to relish the prospect of death. Remarking that theProphet Muhammad’s birthday was two weeks off, an Abu Sayyaf leader told TIME:”It’s jihad time. And what better time? It will be a rare privilege to die onhis birthday. Thanks to the Abu Sayyaf!”
Faced with a group of career bandits, Arroyo had little choice but to come downwith her promised “hail of bullets.” She is desperate to prove to the financialmarkets that her government suffers from none of the impotence of the Estradaadministration, which proved so damaging to foreign capital and share pricesduring the final year of his curtailed presidency. “We must address thisdecisively to show the world that we can protect our citizens, our visitors andour investors,” she said. Hailing the importance of the $2.5 billion tourismindustry, she reassured the business community this was just a “blip.” (She alsodispatched thousands of troops to protect beach resorts in such areas as Cebuand Boracay Island.)
Tourism is not Arroyo’s sole concern. The off-and-on Muslim rebellion in thesouthern Philippines, which dates back to the 1970s, is threatening to graduatefrom domestic inconvenience to international threat. Many Philippine Muslimleaders, like Abu Sabaya, were schooled and trained in Islamist strongholds suchas Libya and maintain links with insurgents across the Middle East and SouthAsia. Asiri Abubakar of the University of the Philippines’ Asian studiesdepartment says the south could become the “regional base of operations” forAsian Muslim terror groups. “If the Philippines does not watch out,” he warns,”the southern Philippines will become not just the world capital of kidnappingbut that of Islamic extremism as well. If this band cannot be crushed, thenwe’re in big trouble.”
All of which can only lessen the remaining hostages’ hopes of getting outunscathed. Zulkurnain Hashim, a 30-year-old wildlife ranger kidnapped last yearfrom Sipadan Island, comments: “If there is a military attack, the Abu Sayyafwill not think twice to kill them.” South African Monique Strydom wrote in herdiary (recently published in Shooting the Moon) on June 19, 2000, day 58 of herabduction: “I hate them. I hate them a thousand times. I hate them for what theyare doing to us … to our families … our parents … for everything they havetaken away from us. I hate them because time is so precious. I hate them for theflies that swarm all over us. I hate them because they have taken our freedom. Ihate them because they are doing all this in the name of God. I pray that Godwill forgive them because I cannot.”
Arroyo is in no forgiving mood either. “I will finish what you started,” shedeclared on national TV. “Force against force, arms against arms. That is whatyou asked for when you challenged me. I will give it to you.” Replied spokesmanAbu Sabaya, who himself was wounded in Saturday’s fighting: “The Philippinegovernment does not seem to care about the hostages … Why should we?” In thebattle for the southern Philippines, the crossfire is getting thicker.