Philippines - Abu Sayyaf attack

Islamic group kidnap, behead Jolo schoolteacher

Article published on the 2009-11-09 Latest update 2009-11-09 09:55 TU

The Philippines
(Photo: WikiMedia Commons)

The Philippines Government has vowed revenge against Al Qaeda-linked militants after the severed head of a kidnapped school principal was dumped at a petrol station. Gabriel Canizares's head was found inside a bag Monday on the southern island of Jolo, 22 days after his abduction. His body remains missing.

The Abu Sayyaf militants had demanded a 2 million peso (28,000 euro) ransom for the release of Canizares, but authorities and his relatives refused to pay.

President Gloria Arroyo's office confirmed the Abu Sayyaf, which is blamed for the country's worst terrorist attacks, was behind Canizares' murder, and vowed tough action.

"We shall make them pay for the enormity of this savagery," Arroyo's spokeswoman, Lorelei Fajardo, said in a statement.

Arroyo had ordered the military and police units operating on Jolo and other Abu Sayyaf strongholds in the southern Philippines into "full swing" in an effort to crush them, the statement said.

Small numbers of US military forces have been in the southern Philippines for the past eight years to train local soldiers in how to fight the Abu Sayyaf, but the group has continued to cause major security problems.

Dozens of Filipino soldiers as well as militants have been killed in clashes on Jolo and nearby islands over the past year alone.

The murder of Canizares threw the spotlight on the Abu Sayyaf and the US military's efforts just three days before US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is due to visit the Philippines.