On Philippine island, life goes on despite kidnappings
JOLO, Philippines - Filipinos call Jolo the forgotten island. It is no more than a jungle-covered speck at the nation's southern tip. Even the mayor of the town of Jolo finds life so dull here that he lives in Zamboanga, three hours northeast by boat on Mindanao island.
There hasn't been much of a foreign presence on Jolo since the Peace Corps pulled out in 1974, and so few tourists come that the occasional backpacker who shows up on the dawn ferry draws curious stares. "There's an afternoon boat back to Zamboanga, so they only stay a few hours," noted Yacub Ismi, a police officer.
Except for occasional kidnappings for ransom - which are so common they're ignored by the media in the national capital, Manila - Jolo island never gets in the news unless something terrible happens, such as in 1876 when colonial Spaniards leveled the town to punish Muslim separatists, or in 1974 when the Manila government did the same thing for the same reason.
So when the town's only hotel - the Peacekeepers Inn, located inside the police compound - has had no vacancy for two weeks, that is not a good omen. The occupants are journalists.
They are in Jolo because of the kidnapping of 21 people - believed to include a South African couple, a German family of three, two Finnish men, two French nationals, a Lebanese woman, 10 Malaysians and a Filipina - who are being held hostage in the rain-soaked hills 11 miles southeast of here.
They were snatched April 23 from the Malaysian resort island of Sipadan by Abu Sayyaf, a group that is in the kidnapping business to further its announced aim of creating a "pure" Islamic state in the southern Philippines.
There was a flurry of diplomatic activity yesterday as Philippine negotiators tried to formulate a strategy for winning the hostages' freedom. The European Union's foreign-policy chief, Javier Solana, flew into Manila to meet with President Joseph Estrada, and Libya's former ambassador to the Philippines, Rajab Azzarouk, arrived in Jolo. Azzarouk has negotiated freedom for several hostages in the Philippines.
In the town of Jolo, the international incident seems to have affected life hardly at all.
"Oh, the trouble's up in the mountains, not here," said Flora Aamah, 55, who runs a coffee shop. "I was here in '74 when the government destroyed the town with bombers and navy ships. Now that was trouble! Those were bad days but things are quite normal now."
Normal? There's a six-hour nighttime curfew and the airport is closed to commercial traffic because pilots fear being hijacked or shot down. The government requires visitors to have two armed guards to go anywhere in town. And there probably is not an adult among the island's residents who doesn't own a gun.
"Having only one gun is abnormal," said Estino Ayyubie, a major general in an Islamic separatist guerrilla force. "Most people have two or three. It is like an American family with their cars. If you have only one car in your garage, you are not keeping up with your neighbors."