Southern PI beginning to look like Somalia

Somalian pirates and warlords do not have a lock on that activity.

Following on from the Maguindanao Province Amputuan massacre, is this coming out of
Basilan Province:

Gunmen hold dozens of Philippine villagers hostage

Mountain tribesmen rounded up children and adults during a morning raid, authorities say. The kidnappers demand the government drop all charges against a gang. Authorities said the abductions may have been a response to police attempts to arrest the leader of the gang, Ondo Perez, who has a string of arrest warrants and is connected to the massacre of a farming family.

Authorities say the two hostage-taking episodes in Basilan and Maguinddanao are not related.

As this story develops, Abu behead hostage; college VP kidnapped

Gunmen Thursday night seized the vice president of state-owned Basilan State College in Isabela City on nearby Basilan Island, a day after the severed head of a factory worker kidnapped by the Abu Sayyaf bandits was recovered near the city plaza.

Singson, said to be in his 20s, was beheaded by his Abu Sayyaf captors purportedly because of his employer’s failure to pay a ransom demand of P1.5 million.

Only on Nov. 9, the severed head of kidnap victim Gabriel Canizares was found in Jolo, Sulu. Canizares was the chief teacher of Kanagi Elementary School in Patikul, also in Sulu.