YOGYAKARTA, Indonesia , 28 January — The Philippine government has declared an all-out war against the Abu Sayyaf group and hopes to eliminate and wipe them out soon, according to a senior minister in President Gloria Arroyo’s government.
“The threat from them and their influence is decreasing. They started with 28 hostages and now they have only three. We are being careful in dealing with them because we don’t want too many deaths,” said Richard J. Gordon, Secretary of Tourism in an exclusive interview with Arab News.
Gordon, who is here as the head of the Philippine delegation taking part in the Royal ASEAN Tourism Forum 2002, called Abu Sayyaf members as cowards.
“They are cowardly and won’t fight any set piece battles. But we will offer an amnesty to those who are carrying firearms to surrender them. If they don’t, then after we have freed the last hostage, we will go in and wipe them out,” Gordon said.
He denied that Abu Sayyaf had a big following. “They are only about 1,000 and most of them are related. Once they are eliminated, the government will pour in a lot of money in the area so that the lot of the people will be improved,” he said.
The deployment of US Special Forces has caused a lot of resentment but Gordon said it was only a microscopic minority which opposed the move.
“It is only three percent people who oppose the deployment. These are the usual left-leaning groups which are very noisy but are very small. Also in our country there are senators who consider themselves as the nationalists who got the Americans out of the country. They are still being consistent with that effort. But 97 percent of the people are supporting the deployment of US troops,” Gordon said.
He said MNLF leader Nur Misuari was his good personal friend and a good man but he was not able to deliver in Mindanao.
“Misuari is being treated with respect. He played a key role in the peace process. I think he was a little hot-headed when he started the rebellion afresh,” he added.
Gordon, a former mayor of Subic, said the trouble started after he lost the elections. “The present governor of the ARMM region is a good guy. He is a doctor, Farook Hussin. He is very good, very sincere, more down to earth, more attuned to economics. Nur was a professor,” he said.
Gordon said in the case of Nur Misuari, the law will take its own course but “perhaps there will be room for forgiveness”.
Talking about the plight for former President Joseph Estrada, Gordon said what was happening to him was justified. “He was a hero but only in films. People could not differentiate for a while. But now they know,” he said.
When asked why it needed an EDSA II to remove Estrada when it could not be done through the system, Gordon replied, “It became a partisan system. In our country there are no political parties. Political parties are parties of ideas. We have become personalities. When we go against someone, it is very personal, very subjective. I am from a group that says ideas are better. It says transformational leadership not just transactional leadership is enough,” Gordon added.
In Estrada’s case also, Gordon said the law will take its own course. “But there is more sympathy for Nur than for Estrada. As a matter of fact when his fangs are removed and his poison is detoxicated, he may be shown some mercy,” he said.
