By Roy Ramos
ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines
A town mayor in an Abu Sayyaf stronghold in the Philippines' south has claimed that the al-Qaeda-linked group and a breakaway faction of the once largest Muslim separatist outfit have intensified recruitment on the island with promises of monetary incentive and firearms.
"They are actively recruiting young men here"
In an interview with Basilan-based DXNO radio station Wednesday, Mayor Joel Maturan of Ungkaya Pukan town said recruitment by the Abu Sayyaf and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) -- who have both sworn allegiance to the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL, -- of young Muslims is "rampant" in his and neighboring towns in Basilan.
Maturan said young Muslims are told if they join the Abu Sayyaf and BIFF they will be given a "dory" -- a financial gift from the groom to the parents of the woman he will marry -- along with high-powered firearms and their families will each receive P50,000 ($1,1247).
"They are actively recruiting young men here," he said in the interview with DXNO.
Maturan said he was told by his local intelligence officers that the Abu Sayyaf and BIFF have been telling young men of their link with the ISIL, who both groups have recently declared their support of.
Reports by Philippines radio station Brigada News have said that some 100 Filipino Muslims from the country’s south, particularly members of the Abu Sayyaf and the BIFF, are currently undergoing training with the ISIL.
On July 23, a video was posted on YouTube of senior Abu Sayyaf leader Isnilon Hapilon -- who has a $5 million U.S. bounty on his head -- and masked men declaring support for the ISIL.
BIFF spokesperson Abu Misry Mama has said that his group has also pledged its support.
ISIL has captured large swathes of land in Iraq and Syria, later declaring the territories under its control an Islamic "caliphate."
The U.S. on Tuesday launched airstrikes against the group, in coalition with Arab allies Bahrain, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar.
The Abu Sayyaf engages in kidnappings for ransom, bombings, assassinations and extortion. It is the most violent of the religious separatist groups operating in the southern Philippines, and claims to promote an independent Islamic state in western Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago.
It is currently holding foreign hostages in its jungle base on the island province of Sulu, including two European bird watchers, who were abducted two years ago in southern Tawi-Tawi province.
BIFF opposes talks between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), who signed a March 27 peace deal that brought to a close 17 years of negotiations and ended a decades-old armed conflict in the southern area of Mindanao while granting Muslim areas greater political autonomy.
Since breaking away from the MILF in 2008, the BIFF has vowed to destroy the peace process with its head Ameril Umbra Kato leading attacks in Mindanao.
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Related story: Philippines: Abu Sayyaf threatens to behead German couple
