MANILA, Philippines — Abu Sayyaf extremists have beheaded a kidnapped Filipino villager after a ransom deadline lapsed. It was their first such brutal act under President Rodrigo Duterte, who ordered troops to destroy the militants.
Regional military spokesman Maj. Filemon Tan said Thursday that the militants killed and beheaded Patrick James Aldovar on Wednesday afternoon near southern Sulu province’s Indanan town.
Tan said the 18-year-old Aldovar, who was seized by the militants July 16 in Sulu’s main Jolo town, was decapitated after his family failed to pay the ransom.
After learning about the beheading, Duterte called the militants among “enemies of the state” whom he wanted dead, ordering government troops: “Drug dealers, destroy them. Abu Sayyaf, destroy them. Period.”
Thousands of reinforcement troops were being flown by C-130 cargo planes to Sulu and nearby Basilan island to help in an ongoing offensive against the militants, Tan said.
The Abu Sayyaf has been blacklisted as a terrorist organization by the U.S. and the Philippines.