FOR President Benigno Aquino III, the first trial by fire was the Luneta hostage crisis in August 2010. Two months into his term, Mr. Aquino dropped the ball and eight Chinese tourists died. In the aftermath of a mismanaged police operation, the President was seen at the crime scene—smiling. He then made matters worse by refusing to apologize to the Chinese. His subsequent failure to swiftly punish those guilty of botching the rescue soured relations with China, a development that could not have helped efforts to come to terms with Beijing over territorial disputes in the West Philippine Sea that were to hound his administration.
Only three days before he takes office, President-elect Rodrigo Duterte already faces his first trial by fire, and we can only hope he can show better leadership under pressure.
Campaigning on a hard anti-crime platform, the tough-talking Davao City mayor is being tested by the Abu Sayyaf bandits, who have made a mockery of law enforcement by kidnapping foreigners and locals with alarming regularity, and growing stronger with each ransom paid.
The bandits’ greed is matched only by their barbarity. Hostages whose ransoms are not paid are routinely beheaded—a fate suffered recently by two Canadians, John Ridsdel and Robert Hall, who were snatched from a posh resort on Samal Island in Davao del Norte in September 2015.
Hall’s Filipina girlfriend, who was taken with him, was released last week in what the bandits called a show of goodwill to the incoming administration—though it is near impossible to associate the word with these bloodthirsty criminals.
The “goodwill gesture” rang hollow, too, since Hall was beheaded less than two weeks ago, in what many saw as a taunt and an act of defiance toward the incoming president.
Duterte, who has promised to eradicate crime in three to six months, would do well to begin with the Abu Sayyaf and all those who aid and abet them in their criminal activities. They are, after all, not ideologues fighting for what they believe is a just cause. Rather, they are a cynical criminal enterprise operating in Duterte’s own home turf of Mindanao.
Like Aquino’s Luneta hostage crisis, the Abu Sayyaf challenge also has international implications, and has already damaged the country’s image as a safe tourist destination.
Duterte says he needs time to talk peace with legitimate Muslim rebels before dealing with the Abu Sayyaf bandits. When he can ascertain they are not aiding the kidnap gang, he will move against the bandits and bring about their day of reckoning. But to succeed in his first trial by fire, Duterte needs to make this happen sooner rather than later.
