Ekip
20 July 2016•Update: 23 July 2016
By Hader Glang
ZAMBOANGA CITY, the Philippines
Military and police authorities are beefing up security measures ahead of President Rodrigo Duterte's Thursday visit to Zamboanga City and its neighboring predominantly Muslim province of Basilan in the southern Philippines.
As early as Wednesday afternoon, security forces could be seen checking vehicles along roads in Zamboanga City from the Edwin Andrews Air Base leading to the Western Mindanao Command headquarters.
"President Duterte will visit the ground troops here battling the Abu Sayyaf group," Maj. Filemon Tan Jr., spokesman of the Western Mindanao Command, underline to defense reporters Wednesday.
The visit comes as a government military offensive against the Daesh-linked group -- who earlier this year beheaded two Canadian hostages after ransoms failed to be paid -- continues into a third week.
"This will be his first as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines since his inauguration as the 16th President on June 30."
Reports have claimed that during Thursday's trip, Duterte will also meet fugitive Moro National Liberation Front Chairman Nur Misuari to talk about the peace process in Mindanao, particularly with the MNLF, and its former ally, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
Misuari has been in exile in Sulu - a southern province in the Sulu Archipelago -- since his siege of Zamboanga on Sept. 9, 2013, left more than 200 people dead -- including MNLF members, police and military forces -- and displaced over 120,000 people.
Zamboanga Mayor Isabelle Climaco-Salazar, the main complainant against Misuari, has expressed concern that the MNLF leader could go free for offenses committed in relation to the siege, should he be given an amnesty by Duterte as part of any peace deal.
On Wednesday, the Philippine Star reported that focus of the visit would be the continuing military offensives against the Abu Sayyaf in their strongholds of Basilan and Sulu, as top defense and security officials would accompany the president.
During his trip, Duterte is scheduled to visit ground forces in Basilan, where he will be briefed on the ongoing operations.
"Military operations continue... it's very intense in Basilan, we are confronting the groups of Isnilun Hapilon, Furuiji Indama and in Sulu we're confronting the captors of foreign hostages and other victims,” the Western Mindanao Command spokesman said.
Since 1991, the Abu Sayyaf group -- armed with mostly improvised explosive devices, mortars and automatic rifles -- has carried out bombings, kidnappings, assassinations and extortions in a self-determined fight for an independent province in the Philippines.
Earlier this year, the group beheaded two Canadian hostages after ransoms failed to be paid.
It has threatened to decapitate a Norwegian captured with them in September if a P300-million ($6 million) ransom demand is not met, and reports also claim the group seized at least five Malaysian tugboat crewmen Monday off Lahad Datu, Sabah.
"The Malaysian authorities have released their official statement. We have considered that, but we are validating the veracity of the report and we're exerting efforts to confirm whether the hostages are now in Sulu," said Tan.
