Manila - Philippine troops will focus more on humanitarian activities and less on fighting after a successful eight-month ground offensive against the country`s fiercest Muslim rebel group, the military chief said on Sunday.
General Hermogenes Esperon told reporters that bulldozers and tractors rather than tanks will start rolling this month onto Jolo island, stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf group and a hiding place for two suspected masterminds of the 2002 Bali bombings.
"We`re shifting to a new type of operation that will feature a lot of civil-military activities, but just the same, we`re still running after high-value targets," Esperon said.
"We`ll be doing less combat operations, but we`re not cutting back on the number of troops because we would need them for engineering, medical and humanitarian activities."
The Philippine military, backed by U.S. advisers, has poured nearly 10,000 soldiers onto Jolo, a Muslim island 600 miles (950 km) south of Manila, to battle the Abu Sayyaf and a handful of militants belonging to Jemaah Islamiah (JI), a regional terror network.
Esperon said the military had killed about 70 militants, including Abu Sayyaf`s top two leaders - Khaddafy Janjalani and Jainal Antel Sali, alias Abu Solaiman -- dealing a body blow to the estimated 400-strong force.
Abu Sayyaf is the most militant of four Islamic rebel groups in the Philippines, a largely Catholic country, where Muslims in the south have been seeking independence for decades in a conflict that has killed more than 120,000 people.
But the fighting on Jolo has displaced thousands and Esperon said the shift from combat to "charm" offensive was needed to maintain the fragile support of locals, who have suffered from violence on both sides.
"There had been a lot of people displaced by our operations," he said.
"We did not intentionally want them to abandon their homes and farms. Now, we`re trying to show them that our soldiers are their true partners in building a more stable and prosperous community."
Washington, which has been helping its former colony flush out the Abu Sayyaf, has emphasised economic development as a means of stamping out Muslim extremism in Southeast Asia and both militaries have helped provide healthcare, roads and bridges to Jolo`s 600,000 people.
Soldiers will continue to hunt Radullan Sahiron, the one-armed Muslim rebel hailed as a folk hero on the island and three prominent JI operatives - Malaysian Zulkifli bin Hir and Bali suspects Dulmatin and Umar Patek.
All three are on the U.S. State Department`s terrorist blacklist. Dulmatin has a $10 million bounty on his head while Patek and Zulkifli, alias Marwan, both have $1 million each.
Source: www.in.today.reuters.com (18 April 2007)