A member of the Aquino Cabinet will ask the lower court to declare the Abu Sayyaf extremist group as a “terrorist” organization which has been blamed for a series of kidnap-for-ransom cases and the execution of hostages in Mindanao.
In a statement, the Department of Justice (DoJ) said Secretary Leila de Lima told government lawyers to prepare a petition asking the Regional Trial Court of Manila to rule that the Abu Sayyaf is a terrorist group or an “enemy of the state.”
The petition, the DoJ pointed out, is allowed by the country’s Human Security Act of 2008 under a legal process called proscription which will enable the lower courts place the “terrorist” tag on such groups like the Abu Sayyaf.
The DoJ added De Lima, also the former head of the Human Rights Commission, wants to file the petition in line with the commitment of President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino to protect the rights of people as enshrined in the 1987 Constitution.
“The government has enough evidence to prove the Abu Sayyaf is a terrorist organization and uses violence to terrorize populations,” De Lima stressed. “There is fear, a climate of fear, in areas where the group operates.”
De Lima also said the DoJ has coordinated with other concerned government agencies in gathering enough evidence to prove its case against the extremists.
A spokesman of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) said the military has long considered the Abu Sayyaf as a terrorist group because it members have engaged in banditry, kidnap-for-ransom, murder and other serious criminal acts that have residents cowering in fear in areas where they operate.
The Abu Sayyaf also cannot be considered as a rebel group since it lacks “political cause,” the spokesman added.
The military said the extremists operate mainly on the island provinces of Sulu and Basilan which belong to the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) along with Tawi-Tawi, Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Sultan Kudarat and Marawi City.
Philippine and regional security experts have confirmed the Abu Sayyaf has connections with the global terrorist network of Osama bin Laden through the Indonesia-based Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) militant group.
The US and the European Union have also tagged the Abu Sayyaf as a “terrorist organization” due to its confirmed links to JI as well as the spate of kidnappings, murder and execution of many of its hostages, including foreigners.
The group first earned international notoriety in 2000 when its members abducted several foreign tourists and Filipinos working in an island resort in Malaysia and brought them to Sulu.
Reports were that the Abu Sayyaf released their foreign and Filipino hostages following the payment of a “huge ransom.”
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