The Jolo campaign: Mission impossible?

Thousands of troops have been deployed to Jolo

By Simon Ingram in Zamboanga, the southern Philippines

The campaign by the Philippine armed forces to free 17 hostages still held by guerrillas of the Abu Sayyaf movement on the southern island of Jolo is now well into its second week.

An offensive President Estrada wanted finished within three days plainly has some way to run.

Even more problematic is the second objective the Philippine leader set his generals - to annihilate the Abu Sayyaf and put an end to the kidnapping industry which has plagued the southern part of the country.

At the sprawling military base in Zamboanga, from where the offensive is planned and co-ordinated, Brigadier-General Generoso Senga, spells out the prime purpose of the onslaught against the Abu Sayyaf.

"In one word, to neutralise them," he says. "So that they can no longer engage in kidnap for ransom activities, and so that other groups who may be thinking of doing the same will be dissuaded from doing so."

For the Abu Sayyaf, hostage taking has become a profitable business

Out on the streets of Zamboanga - as in much of the Philippines - the decision to go to war against the kidnappers is hugely popular.

Shopkeepers in this predominantly Christian town say the long drawn-out hostage saga has driven away customers and tourists.

For the gunmen of the Abu Sayyaf, they say, no punishment could be too severe.

Local fishermen too are keen to see the Abu Sayyaf wiped out.

Fear and anger

Since the military offensive began on 16 September, they've been barred by the navy from fishing anywhere except in waters closest to Zamboanga.

The campaign against the Abu Sayyaf shows no sign of coming to an end

"Kill them all," says one fisherman hunched over lunchtime beers with his colleagues. "Then maybe we'll have a peaceful Philippines."

But there's fear in the town as well as anger.

Last week a bomb exploded on a ferry just after it had docked in Zamboanga port.

The man carrying it, suspected by police of being an Abu Sayyaf sympathiser, was killed in the blast.

Warnings of a rebel backlash against civilian targets suddenly gained a new urgency, putting added pressure on the army to show results from the Jolo offensive.

Rugged terrain

More than 4,000 men have been deployed to hunt down groups of Abu Sayyaf gunmen who know the rugged terrain of the island well and who enjoy the sympathy of the local population.

The campaign in Jolo has forced thousands to flee their homes

According to retired General Delfin Castro, who commanded another army offensive in Jolo in the 1970s, the military faces a daunting challenge.

"It would be nice if the Abu Sayyaf would stand its ground and fight," he says. "But the whole trouble is the Abu Sayyaf refuse to fight, and opted to run, and I would say divided into several groups.

"So, in the initial stages, if you were not able to pin them down and locate them, after four hours, they could actually have spread all over Jolo."

Operational difficulties for the military are one thing, but there's a deeper question posed by the longer-term objective set for the mission by President Estrada.

Kidnap tradition

He wants to obliterate the Abu Sayyaf and thus put an end to the long tradition of kidnapping - both of foreigners and of local people - for which the southern Philippines has earned such notoriety.

The Philippine authorities want to bring an end to hostage takings

Father Angel Calvo is a Spanish missionary who has spent long years in the region. He says hopes of a military solution to the problem of kidnapping are an illusion.

The problem, he says, is "a culture of violence, in which the gun has been the symbol of livelihood, even a symbol of manhood.

"Once you have a gun, you have to use it and this is a very profitable way of living, to kidnap a foreigner or any prominent figure because you know somebody will pay."

However flawed in concept and tactics the offensive in Jolo might be, there's no turning back for President Estrada now.

The humiliation heaped on his administration by the Abu Sayyaf kidnappers had to be ended one way or another.

But unless the army can free more hostages soon, the doubts surrounding their mission can only grow.