The Basilan Operation
Still reeling from that unforgettable trip to Sulu and Tawi-Tawi last year, I already found myself onboard a fast craft ferry from Zamboanga to the one of the most feared towns in the Philippines - Isabela City, Basilan. I was a bit more weary this time, since that Jolo experience. If Sulu is where the bad people live, the big bosses of the bad people reside in Basilan, and consider it their home base. My agitation got worse when I recently watched a documentary in Nat Geo on the Dos Palmas kidnappings. The hostages were taken to Basilan, where the war between the government and the Abu Sayyaf rebels was at its peak. So when we arrived from a surprisingly comfortable ferry ride at 7AM in the morning, still a little bit dozed, we were unsurprisingly picked up by the military police. We rode the patrol car immediately and drove off to our hosts. I was shocked to see Isabela very neat and organized. There weren't many people, and the surroundings looked very peaceful. It didn...