Last week it was confirmed that Norman Lasuca is the first ever Filipino suicide bomber. Now we finally have a picture of him.
Look at this guy. He's cool, confident, ready to go out there and accomplish all his goals. His whole attitude is right there on his t-shirt. "You will succeed." While he succeeded in not only becoming the first Filipino suicide bomber but also in causing a lot of damage the AFP and the PNP have not succeeded in exterminating the terrorist problem in the Philippines. Even Duterte does not see them stamping out terrorism anytime soon despite their repeated assertions that they will soon wipe out Abu Sayyaf and that the BARMM will bring peace.
“I see very dangerous times ahead. And I hope that we will be able to contain whatever there is really to… My hands sweat just thinking about [what would happen] if it would go awry outside of Sulu and Basilan Islands,” the President, speaking partly in Filipino, said.
Though acknowledging that AFP had already acquired valuable assets, the President insisted that there were still “instruments” needed in fighting terrorism.
He said he might call for a discussion on how the government would face terrorism in the years to come.
“One of these days, I will call for a time to talk at ease and we’ll talk about it because it is really needed by the country,” he said.
If Duterte really does see dangerous times ahead and believes that the government needs to come to grips with how it will face terrorism in the years to come then he should hold those talks. He should gather his cabinet and the AFP and PNP top brass and lay out a plan to fight terrorism. Frankly the Whole Of Nation Approach as spelled out in EO 70 is not going to cut it.
A military official on Thursday said the government has found the best approach to end insurgency via Executive Order (EO) No. 70, signed by President Rodrigo Duterte last year that institutionalizes a “whole-of-nation approach” in attaining an “inclusive and sustainable peace.”
The EO 70 has created a national task force to help end local communist insurgency and armed conflict in different areas of the country.
The Whole of Nation Approach is directed towards ending the communist insurgency by providing more government services thus ending grievances locals may have which in turn will deter them from joining the CPP-NPA. The E-CLIP program is linked to this approach.
The Compostela Valley provincial government handed out land titles and gave cash assistance to former New People’s Army (NPA) guerrillas to consolidate the local government’s effort in integrating them back to the communities.
On July 4 and 5, the provincial government distributed 149 land titles to former NPAs who are residents of Barangay Araibo in Pantukan town. They were also granted P300,000 in cash assistance.
The Department of Agrarian Reform also distributed titles, while the Department of Social Welfare and Development sepatately gave P300,000 to the members of Araibo Bugasan Pamana SLP (Payapa at Masaganang Pamayanan-Sustainable Livelihood Program) Association.
That is 149 men will never pay for their crimes. Instead they receive land titles and P300,000. Abu Sayyaf members are also encouraged to surrender and avail of government benefits. Like these two men.
Beaming in a white toga and academic cap, Ibrahim Malat Fernandez, 40, proudly marched to the stage of Basilan State College here.
His immediate family members and relatives were there to applaud his life-changing feat. “It’s like a dream. Once, I was in the mountains, fighting soldiers. Now I’m a high school graduate.” said an emotional Fernandez.
He is the younger brother of the late Abu Sayyaf commander Long Malat, whom he joined in the hills. When Malat was killed in an encounter with the military in 2014, Fernandez took over his command and became one of the bandit group’s leaders in Basilan.
But his new role in the group led to strained relations between him and his three wives and nine children. He soon feared suffering the same fate that befell his sibling.
Fernandez decided to surrender in May 2017.
How many soldiers did this man kill? How many people did he terrorise? He was not just a regular member of the ASG he was one of its leaders. But now we are to applaud him for graduating high school? Both of these men should be dead or sitting in prison. Seeing their smiling faces and reading how they want to live peaceful lives is an affront to those whose lives they have destroyed.
Generally speaking though the Muslims don't care about the government offering more services. Muslim terrorists are separatists who want their own nation which is to say all of Mindanao. The only way to deal with them is extermination.
Duterte's order to destroy "
Abu Sayyaf by whatever means" was given back in January after the cathedral bombing. What has happened since? Has ASG been destroyed? No. Instead the DND and the Palace and the AFP and PNP are all wringing their hands over the first Filipino suicide bomber.
“It’s a cause for concern, given that this is the first time that there is a Filipino suicide bomber. It goes against the grain of the character of Filipinos. ‘Yung mag suicide ka para sa terrorism,” he said.
https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1140504/first-filipino-suicide-bombing-incident-worries-malacanang
What exactly goes against the grain of the character of Filipinos? Killing? Loyalty to a cause even unto death? It's certainly not killing.
On July 6th Duterte reiterated for the umpteenth time his call to destroy Abu Sayyaf.
“Kaya tayo medyo may gulo and the Abu Sayyaf, which is really a connect of ISIS is still sowing terror…My orders to my military and police to just simply wipe them out from the face of the Earth if we can do that,” he said during his visit to Leyte last Friday.
“If they can exhibit that kind of brutality, finish them off because we do not need that kind of human beings with us. We have been out to make peace with them,” he said.
Duterte said he has already placed a military division in Sulu to combat the Abu Sayyaf militants threatening public safety. “We have to continue to worry about terrorism,” the Mindanaoan leader said.
He admitted that fighting has been “brutal” in the south as the IS militants commit kidnap-for-ransom and murder. He bewailed that these lawless elements have a penchant to decapitate their captives.
How will the AFP meet this goal?
"Definitely, we will have adjustments in our (security) techniques, tactics, and procedure given this development in Sulu but as you know and I know you would understand we just cannot reveal that to you because those are operational matters that cannot be publicly announced," he said.
Arevalo also said the AFP will also develop doctrines for fighting in urban terrain based on the combat experience of soldiers during the five-month battle for Marawi City in 2017.
Adjust security techniques and tactics? What good will that do? How many times will they have to make an adjustment to their tactics before they find the right way to go about defeating Abu Sayyaf?
The Armed Forces of the Philippines said it will constantly adjust its tactics in fighting the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG).
This was disclosed by AFP public affairs office chief Col. Edgard Arevalo in an interview late Sunday.
He added adjustment in tactics will be done after six months which is in line with the self-imposed time frame set by AFP chief-of-staff Gen. Eduardo Año on eliminating the ASG threat.
“And if within six months, the ASG threat is still present or existing, after six months, then, we will have an assessment of the experiences, lessons made in fighting the ASGs and, we will come out with an adjustment (in tactics) that will be based on the previous semester,” Arevalo said in Filipino.
He also said the AFP chief’s commitment to crush the bandit group in six months is not ambitious as changes are now ongoing on operational commitments, procedures, leadership and compositions of the fighting teams.
Oh look. It's the same guy saying the same thing two years ago. Obviously any adjustments that have been made are not working.
What is the response of the PNP to Duterte's call to wipe Abu Sayyf off the face of the Earth? They will strengthen their intelligence gathering.
(The help we usually do there besides the joint operations with the Armed Forces of the Philippines is our intelligence, the strengthening of our intelligence gathering.)
Remember all the intelligence the AFP and PNP had about the Marawi siege which they ignored? Read about it
here. The problem is not merely gathering intelligence but acting on it. Notice above Duterte says wipe them off the face of the Earth "if we can do that." Can the AFP and PNP do that? Seems unlikely. Especially when they don't even have the equipment needed to intensify their intelligence.
Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Gen. Oscar Albayalde on Thursday blamed “political issues” in Congress for the lack of modernized equipment of the police for gathering intelligence information, as part of the measures to counter terrorism.
Albayalde said the government, not just the police and the military, should be more serious with enforcing actions against terrorism in the country, after a DNA test confirmed that 23-year-old Norman Lasuca, one of the suspected suicide bombers at a military camp in Indanan, Sulu, was a Filipino.
(Our lawmakers should understand that this time we really need to have important intelligence technical equipment.)
Albayalde earlier said suicide bombing is not popular among local terrorists since it is not embedded in our culture.
Despite this development, Albayalde, however, said the procurement of the modernized equipment is not included in the proposed budget of the PNP for 2020.
Asked by a reporter on the reason behind not including it in the proposed budget, he said: “Alam mo na ang reason siguro doon (You probably know the reason why).”
(We cannot request those kinds of surveillance equipment. Sometimes, political issues get in the way so we cannot improve our important surveillance equipment.)
Aside from improving equipment for intelligence information gathering, Albayalde also called for the passage of amendments for the Human Security Act of 2007 and the creation of national ID, which he said can help authorities fight terrorism and insurgency.
He said education can also thwart the radicalization of Filipino youth by terrorist groups.
What does PNP Chief Albayalde mean that they cannot request the equipment they need? If the Philippine government won't earmark funds for equipment at least the US is providing the country with drones and the training to use them. By the way do you remember when the PNP spent P24,560,256 on 48 bomb sniffing dogs?
PNP chief Director General Ronald "Bato" Dela Rosa said the additional K9 units were purchased under the 2017 budget to help prevent the "threat of ISIS and terrorism" in the country.
Looks like the dogs haven't prevented anything. Of course they were procured to protect the airports but one would think that a few dogs would be deployed to Mindanao to sniff out bombs.
In the same speech where Duterte called for their extermination he also mentioned that the ASG operates by kidnapping people and holding them for ransom. A few months ago he warned people to stay away from Zamboanga because of that very risk.
“There’s a certain place which I would not recommend to anybody to go there, not just as yet, is Zamboanga,” Duterte told Filipino and foreign participants of the 7th Union Asia Pacific Regional Conference in Pasay City.
“Some Europeans go there for the bird watching and they are captured and eventually they are decapitated even after the payment of ransom,” he added.
But just this week the DOT says Mindanao is safe and actually recommends tourists visit Zamboanga for bird watching.
Despite President Rodrigo Duterte’s declaration that Mindanao remains a “dangerous place,” the Department of Tourism (DOT) on Wednesday said parts of the region are not “troubled” and in fact “full of attractions and destinations.”
Speaking at the weekly economic forum in Malacañang, Tourism Assistant Secretary Roberto Alabado III said the department remains steadfast in promoting different tourist attractions in Mindanao even as some of its areas continue to be gripped with terrorism and armed conflict.
Alabado particularly mentioned Zamboanga which boasts its Intramuros-like forts and the pink beaches of Santa Cruz island.
“If you go to Zamboanga, I don’t think that it’s a troubled area. I go there for bird watching. If we have the Intramuros here, you should see the old forts that they have in Zamboanga. It’s a city where you would see the interplay of Muslim culture, the American heritage (and) the Spanish heritage,” Alabado told reporters
“I would encourage our Filipino tourists to visit Zamboanga and you would be pleasantly surprised at how nice the pink beaches of Santa Cruz Island,” he added.
The DOT is out of its mind. From
promoting malls as legitimate tourist destinations to encouraging tourists to visit dangerous areas like Zamboanga where both Filipinos and foreigners have been kidnapped by Abu Sayyaf it seems the DOT is doing everything in its power to mock the Philippines, misrepresent the security situation, and encourage potentially deadly behaviour. Anything for a few more tourist shekels right? I wonder if they recommend traveling to Sulu, Abu Sayyaf's home base, to see the rare and beautiful light formations in the night sky.
