All transactions, including those with bandits like the Abu Sayyaf, are to some degree based on trust.  Ironic as it may seem, a negotiator like Secretary Robert Aventajado finds himself not having much of a choice but to take the word of an outlaw like Commander Robot.  If Robot says he will take $12 million … Read more

Armed only with a bolo, a small man charges in the direction of automatic gunfire.  The momentum of his gallop carries him forward; for a while he seems immortal.  The camera follows him through this act of folly until he stumbles and lands on his face.  His head jerks a few times as bullets find … Read more

There was a time in the history of the Sulu Sultanate, roughly towards the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century, when slave raiding became a popular means of acquiring valuable workers.  Jolo flourished as the center of a large and active slave market.  The slaves, known as “banyaga,” were taken … Read more

One day last month amid the rains, I bundled off my family to the beach.  Two storms were threatening, but the foul weather did not deter us.  It wasn’t the swim in serene waters that I longed for, it was the leisure in the company of loved ones. I thought I would never hear myself … Read more

Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Angelo Reyes has announced the recruitment of ten thousand new members into the Citizens Armed Force Geographical Units (CAFGU).  Seven thousand of these, he said, are to be deployed in Mindanao starting August to fight the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).   They will be responsible for protecting the communities … Read more

The president shows up at Payatas to express his sympathies.  It has been two weeks since a garbage avalanche buried more than 200 people here. The visit comes a bit late.  But better late than never. Like a solicitous patriarch, he lends an ear to the voices of a grieving community.  A young girl who … Read more

The woman lost six members of her family in the garbage avalanche. But there was no self-pity or anger in her voice when she spoke to the TV camera.  There was only a lingering sadness in her eyes, but an aura of resignation held that in check.  I remember her being inconsolable in early footage … Read more

I suppose pastor Wilde Almeda is now slowly realizing that it takes more than prayers to release the Sulu hostages from the grip of the Abu Sayyaf.  But his ploy, heedless as it is, may not be as harebrained as the idea of granting special powers to the president to solve the Mindanao crisis. The … Read more

The armed group behind the hostage situation in Sulu tries to disguise its real purpose by throwing in all kinds of cause-oriented sounding demands into the negotiations.  The Abu Sayyaf leaders style themselves like rebels with a cause, and some of them may have been, but the incoherence of their demands shows that their objective … Read more

The most visible political casualty in the ongoing kidnap crisis in Mindanao is Nur Misuari.  The 21 mostly foreign hostages who were taken from Malaysia more than two months ago are being held in Sulu.  This province is Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) territory.  The maintenance of peace and order there is Misuari’s responsibility.  Yet … Read more