It's really hard to get an accurate count, but it looks like at least 40 abu sayaff terrorists have been killed off since last Wednesday's Davao bombing. Just a start. Hit pretty close to home, as my youngest sister in law is a Senior at Ateneo, one of the top colleges there, very close to the bombing site and where she and her friends often go to grab a bite to eat. She had thought of going that night, but decided to stay home and watch some Korean soap opera instead.
Now the Philippine President, President Rodrigo Duterte did a remarkable job keeping Davao City one of the safest cities in Asia over the two decades he was Davao's Mayor. That's a major reason why I didn't mind buying a house there. I can walk anywhere there at 3AM and unlike in too many places in the USA, not unconciously be patting my butt, making sure my phone and wallet's still there, or being on the lookout for sketchy looking people. It's not like where in my own city here, where we know there's rough neighborhoods close to wealthy neighborhoods, where you just don't go, or parks that we consider 'off limits' after sunset. Now Dutertes' son is Mayor of Davao, which has become the second largest city in the110 million population Philippines.This is good.
But President Duterte actually had the balls in July to fly into what's got to be the, or damn near the flat out epicenter of Islamic extremism/terrorism, Basilan Island. In a speech, he urged those elments to "shun hatred."
Duterte draws a lot of international criticism for condoning 'shoot to kill' against criminals and he doesn't kiss up to anyone, including China, the USA and the United Nations. Not saying that 'the end justifies the means' in all cases, but in a nation with as much corruption, overall infrastructure issues and drug problems as does the Phillipines, you could argue the case.
Call him a "Cowboy" or "The Punisher" as many have for years, but the fact is that never mind that he won the election, but it sure seems like he's won the approval of the majority of Filipinos since then as well.
Yes, even the MILF, the Moro Islamic Liberation front---long considered almost allies, if not the same as the terrorists, has come out against abu sayaff, a terrorist group widely acknowledged as existing more to make money from cowardly acts of terrorism and kidnappings than to promote any political agenda.
The Japanese have stepped forward. The Philippine Army, who's leaders once took USA military arms and intelligence info and sold it to the very terrorists the 'aid' was meant to combat, are now much cleaner. Similar to the Philippine's police force, also now much cleaner, as Duterte investigated corruption, actually naming names and unlike previous Presidents, cutting off the corrupt, rather than simply pretending to 'do something.'
Last but not least, you can be sure there's plenty of US Military 'advisors'---boots on the ground, with technology that from the sky on a moonless night, can tell if it's a rat or rabbit below the jungle canopy below and how to take them out. There's too much ground, too many islands, too much sea to exterminate the vermin, but rest assured, they're working on it.
This is going to be interesting.
