President Arroyo refuted U.S. claims that her administration was too soft on terrorists, pointing to the killing of the Abu Sayyaf leader Hamsiraji Sali by government troops in a bloody battle in Basilan on April 8th. Attending a town fiesta in Umingan, Pangasinan, the President said she is confident her administration is slowly but surely winning the fight against terrorism.
On March 30th, Mrs. Arroyo announced the arrest of at least six alleged members of an Abu Sayyaf cell in Metro Manila, whose mission was to launch "Madrid-level" attacks on commuter train terminals, shopping malls and other soft targets. She acknowledged that the successes against terrorism were made possible with help from the United States and the participation of local communities.
On April 6th, the U.S. Justice Department began proceedings that could lead to the extradition of one of those arrested, Alhamser Manatad Limbong. Along with several other suspected Abu Sayyaf members, Limbong was indicted by a federal grand jury in Washington in December 2002, charged with the kidnapping and murder of several Americans. Limbong has confessed to taking part in the beheading of American hostage Guillermo Sobero in June 2001.
Another suspect, Redendo Caim Dellosa, had confessed to planting the bomb that caused the explosion and fire that killed more than 100 people aboard the Super Ferry 14 on February 27th. Until the confession, the government had steadfastly refused to call the explosion a terrorist attack. The U.S. has bomb experts in Manila who could determine the exact cause of the explosion, but the Philippine government did not allow them to do so. Its "utter refusal to do anything" about the ferry attack was another reason for the U.S. warning, a Western diplomat said.
An alliance of sorts has been formed between Jema'ah Islamiah, Abu Sayyaf and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which has been waging a war against the Philippine government in Mindanao for more than two decades. In areas controlled by the MILF, Jema'ah Islamiah has camps where, according to Philippine and Western security officials, Indonesian instructors train recruits from Indonesia and the Philippines, including members of Abu Sayyaf.
The new group on the scene is the "Rajah Solaiman Movement" which recruits Christians, then presses them to convert to a militant form of Islam. A Philippine intelligence report stated that the group was founded in 2002, and its goal is the "Islamization of the whole country on the belief that before the Spaniards came with Christianity, there were Muslims here." The movement has a special operations group and a special action force and is financed by money from Saudi Arabia channeled through charities in the Philippines. The leader of Abu Sayyaf, Khadaffy Janjalani, gave the Rajah Solaiman Movement the equivalent of about $200,000 for operational activities. It "focuses on converting Christians to Islam, then sending them for terrorist training." A Western diplomat said that, over a period of months, the United States "had given the Philippines intelligence that should have led to the arrest of suspected terrorists, including the leader of Abu Sayyaf, but the Philippine government did not act." Among the arrested suspects were at least two former Christians who had embraced Islam.
