Philippine militants threaten to kill 2 German hostages

The United States-based terrorism monitoring group SITE, has said that the extremists said they would kill one of two German hostages (main picture) unless a 250 million pesos  about $5.62 m ransom was paid and Berlin stopped supporting the US-led campaign against the "Islamic State" (IS) group in Iraq and Syria, reports DW.

Manila responded on September 25, saying the Philippine government doesn't negotiate with Islamist militants.

"We will not be intimidated by these gestures and actions. We will continue to contain them," Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said.

The German hostages - aged 71 and 55 - are thought to have been seized by the rebels from their yacht off the western province of Palawan on April 25.

The Abu Sayyaf (ASG), a small group of Islamic militants based in the southern Philippines, have been blamed for some of the worst terrorist attacks in the Philippines and high-profile kidnappings of foreign hostages. At least one ASG commander has pledged allegiance to IS.

Joseph Franco, a terrorism expert at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) in Singapore, says in a DW interview that while the group may present itself as an organization aimed at establishing a caliphate across Mindanao, it is not primarily driven by ideology, but by financial interests. But while the group may be weaker than before, there are good reasons to take their ransom demands seriously, he adds.

DW: The ASG has threatened to kill one of the hostages unless a ransom of more than five million USD is paid. How seriously should the authorities take this threat?

Joseph Franco: Philippine authorities appear to have taken the demands quite seriously and with good reason. The ASG has executed Western hostages before as seen in the beheading of American Guillermo Sobero in 2001. It must be pointed out however, that 2001 was when the ASG was at the height of its armed capability and was flush with cash after ransom payments were made for the release of previously kidnapped foreigners.

Joseph Franco

That said, the Abu Sayyaf of today pales in comparison with that of 2000-2001. So I think the recent kidnappings are also a ploy to bring attention, as it has become more reminiscent of a bandit group.

What is the group fighting for?

The ASG presents itself as an organization aimed at establishing a caliphate across Mindanao, centered on the southern island provinces off the coast of Western Mindanao such as Basilan and Sulu. The group doesn't have a strong ideological heritage and refers to the discourse of Islamism and jihad only in a nominal fashion.

The ASG kidnappings in Eastern Malaysia between late 2013 and early 2014 reveal the group's weakness as an ideological movement. ASG has not even attempted to present the kidnappings as political acts; their preoccupation with profit-making overshadows their ideological moorings.

In 1998, the demise of ASG founder Abdurajak Abubakar Janjalani - arguably the only ideologue in the group's history - stunted its ideological development. No other ASG faction leader has produced something to complement or rival Janjalani's written tract, the Jumaah Abu Sayyaf. For opportunistic individuals, joining the ASG is a way to monetize their possession of illegal firearms. Mindanao is a region beset with small arms proliferation, where firearm possession is part of a wider gun culture.

How is the group structured?

The Philippine military refers to ASG bands as "community armed groups" and as yet has not confirmed who the actual parties holding the German hostages are. In general, the ASG has no solid chain of command or control, with members simply switching allegiance based on convenience. It is also not uncommon for armed individuals - whether formally aligned with the ASG or not - to provide assistance to relatives who have concrete links to the Islamist group.

Who is funding them?

The ASG is self-sufficient and, aside from kidnapping, are known to engage in extortion and protection rackets (reportedly for marijuana growers in Sulu), so it is very unlikely that they have any foreign funding.

The ASG factions involved in kidnappings operate similar to a cottage industry. The islands off the coast of Western Mindanao host a number of individuals who grab the victims."Facilitators" shunt the kidnapped to villages that provide "room and board" - a euphemism for detention - and to the local officials who act as "negotiators." It is a similar modus operandi used by organized kidnapping groups operating elsewhere in the Philippines.