Editor's note: The following article is an excerpt from Torres's book Into the
Mountain: Hostaged by the Abu Sayyaf.

AHMAD SAMPANG (not his real name), is a 22-year old Tausug. He was the amir (leader) of the urban hit squad of the dreaded Abu Sayyaf Group in Basilan from June 1992 to December 1998.

The good-looking Sampang was just 17 years old when he joined the Abu Sayyaf in 1992. He was one of the “pioneers” of the group formed by Ustadz Abdurajak Abubakar Janjalani, a young idealistic Muslim preacher who studied Islam in the Middle East.

There were at least only 30 of them who initially composed what was later known as the Abu Sayyaf Group.

Among the original members of the bandit group, aside from Abdurajak and Sampang, were Abdurajak’s brother Hector Janjalani, now in the hands of the military; Edwin Angeles, a.k.a. Yusuf Islam, later discovered to be a government military asset; and Muhamad Wahab Akbar, who later became governor of Basilan.

The other members were young Muslim students from the towns of Isabela, Lamitan, Maluso, Lantawan and Sumisip, all in the province of Basilan.

Sampang was a computer engineering student at A.E. College in Zamboanga City when he was invited to join the group. He was told that the Muslim ummah (community) needs people who could assert the teachings of the Qur'an.

Sampang was a friend and classmate of Hector in a madrasah (Islamic school) where Abdurajak preaches every Friday.

“We were persuaded by what [Abdurajak] taught us about Islam. Christians laugh at us, oppress and despise us,” Sampang said, adding that Abdurajak said the only way to get back at Christians was through a jihad (holy war).

Clandestine training

Fired up by Abdurajak’s ideas, the students were sent to nearby Sulu province for clandestine military training.

“We went there as students. We bought our student identification cards for P20 at the Basilan National High School,” Sampang said, adding that they had to go to Zamboanga City to get a boat ride for Jolo.

In order not to arouse suspicion from the military, the young recruits were told to only bring an extra pair of pants, three T-shirts and some high school textbooks.

“I can still remember that I brought with me a book about Jose Rizal with the Philippine flag on its cover,” Sampang recalled.

When the soldiers manning the port asked them for identification, the recruits said they were students going home to Jolo for the weekend.

In the village of Tugas, Patikul town in Sulu, the Abu Sayyaf training camp was just a stone’s throw away from a military detachment.

“We even got water from where the soldiers get theirs,” Sampang said. “When they asked us who we were, we said we’re students out camping at a nearby village."

Even when the soldiers decided to visit the camping site, Sampang said they found nothing because the firearms were well hidden. The four foreign trainers -- three Afghans and a Syrian -- could also easily hide in the nearby trees, he added.

“We woke up at 4:30 in the morning for prayers, then we jog and do calisthenics. We crawled, rolled and did physical exercises,” Sampang said.

After breakfast, at around 9:00 a.m., they were taught the use and maintenance of firearms.

At 11:30 a.m., they ate and rested.

At midday they recited the noon prayers together, after which they studied the Qur'an for several hours.

At 3:30 p.m. they prayed together again. After that physical exercises and combat training.

“It was hard during the basic training. It took us two weeks. But after that, we were used to the routine,” Sampang said. He said it was in Tugas where he learned to use firearms like the M-16, M-14, 90RR, 57RR, 60mm mortar, M203 and others.

After three months of training, the group went back to Basilan.

Sampang was assigned to head the group’s “urban demolition squad” based in Isabela, the provincial capital. His unit’s assignment was to assassinate soldiers and people who refused to give them money.

When he felt that people were suspecting him of being behind the killings, Sampang joined his comrades in the mountains of the village of Makiri in the town of Lantawan.

Ranks swell

In 1994, Sampang said, their ranks began to swell. “There were many young Muslims who wanted to join us."

Some were former guerillas of the Moro National Liberation Front who were already disgusted with how Nur Misuari was leading the organization. Some MNLF guerillas, especially in Basilan, believed Misuari had virtually surrendered to the Philippine government when he entered into peace negotiations with then-president Fidel Ramos, a former soldier.

“The Qur'an says one has to die for one’s faith and not surrender,” one of the MNLF recruits said. They believe what Misuari did in 1996 was not in accordance with the teachings of Islam's holy book.

Sampang said they got a lot of support from countries in the Middle East especially during the early years of the organization. “Even our uniforms came from abroad. We were even issued bulletproof vests,” he said.

They called themselves al-Harakatul Islamiya although their group was better known as the Abu Sayyaf, meaning “Father of the Sword.” The title was supposed to refer to Abdurajak, the group’s founder and ideologue.

The name later stuck and was translated by journalists and the military to mean “Bearer of the Sword.”

“We grew in number because the people sympathized with us,” Sampang claimed. “Whenever the military goes on operations, they would harass ordinary civilians in rural areas. They would kill ordinary people, so the families of the victims join us. A lot of people wanted to join the Abu Sayyaf then."

Sampang added: “People were supportive of us because when we got ransom money from the kidnappings we gave them money. When they asked for pump boats (motorized outriggers), we gave them. We gave it to them for their livelihood."

In the town of Lantawan, he claimed, people are very supportive of the Abu Sayyaf. “They would hide our firearms, that’s why the military could not catch us or follow us,” Sampang said.

In exchange, they gave the people livelihood projects like goats and chicken to take care. “If a landlord would threaten tenants, we would kill the landlord, day or night,” he said.

Sampang, however, said they didn’t kill indiscriminately. “We do our thing in an organized manner,” he said.

This was the reason, he added, that they were able to convince a lot of people to support them. He claimed that they were able to reduce electricity and water rates in the province after they sent a letter to managers of the local electric company and the water district.

“We told them that the poor could not avail of electricity and water because of the high rates,” he said.

“We warned the company that if they did not lower the rates, the Abu Sayyaf would sabotage their operations,” Sampang added, saying the strategy was Abdurajak’s idea. He claimed that Abdurajak wanted “to help those who were oppressed.”

Abdurajak was the overall leader, his brother Hector was the military commander, and Sampang the urban hit squad leader.

When the group grew in number, Hector became one of several battalion commanders, while Sampang remained top urban assassin. Before his capture, Hector took the place of Sampang as urban hit squad leader.

Another prominent commander among the group during the early years was a certain Ustadz Atilon, a former MNLF guerrilla.

Popular leader In the late 1990s, the more popular leaders were Abu Sabaya, the group’s spokesman, who became notorious for his threats aired over local radio stations, Ghalib Andang alias “Commander Robot” and Mujib Susukan, both former MNLF leaders in Sulu.

During a massive military operation against the Abu Sayyaf in Basilan in the mid-1990s, Abdurajak escaped to Sulu and sought refuge in the camps of Andang and Susukan. The charismatic preacher instantly won the hearts of the two MNLF commanders and convinced them to join the Abu Sayyaf as its leaders in Sulu.

Sampang cannot forget the day Abdurajak was killed. There were only seven of them hiding in a house at the outskirts of Isabela near the boundary of Lamitan. Abdurajak instructed Sampang to go to the capital town that morning to buy supplies.

“I only learned later that evening that there had been an encounter in the area where we were hiding. I learned the next day that my companions were killed,” Sampang recalled.

He said the whole group was demoralized. “Abdurajak was a big loss. He was a good person. He knew how to handle people,” Sampang said. “He will not pressure anybody, unlike the other leaders."

After Abdurajak’s death, his younger brother, Khaddafy Janjalani a.k.a. Abu Mochtar, assumed the leadership of the group. “He is good-hearted,” Sampang said of Khadaffy. “The problem is he could not make his own decision. He needs advisers, unlike Abdurajak."

Everybody followed Abdurajak’s orders. Khaddafy, however, had to form a council of leaders and consult them before making a decision. While Abdurajak got his training in the Middle East, Khaddafy was trained in Marawi City.

“Anybody could talk to Abdurajak even if you are just an ordinary member,” Sampang said. The leader treated his men like his equal.

When Abdurajak formed his group, Sampang claimed, he did not teach his members to be angry with Christians.

“We were angry with government leaders. We didn’t like how they run our country,” Sampang said. “During Christian holy days there were no classes, but on Muslim holy days, Muslims had to go to school or work."

“The idea of Abdurajak was for Muslims and Christians in Mindanao to work together. We respect their freedom of religion. What we wanted is for us, Muslims, to freely practice the teachings of the Qur'an and for Christians to respect it,” he said.

Sampang was sad when he heard Abu Sabaya threatening Christians and urging Muslims to remove all the crosses in Basilan in 2000.

“It is not right anymore,” he said. “If only Abdurajak were still alive, he would not allow it. Innocent Muslims would be affected,” he added.

Fund-raising

The original Abu Sayyaf Group got their money from the ransom they get from their kidnapping operations. They also collected money from businessmen. “Most businessmen in the island would give us money and we protect them,” Sampang said.

In the early 1990s the group asked P5,000 a month and several sacks of rice from each business establishment. “Sometimes they only give us rice,” Sampang said.

They also collected money from teachers and other professionals. “The teachers would give P50 a month,” Sampang said.

When Abdurajak died, Khaddafy demanded P200 a month from each teacher. “Of course people would give. They were afraid. How could they not be afraid when at least 50 fully armed men visited the schools?” Sampang said.

Some politicians also gave money to the group. “Governor Wahab Akbar [of Basilan] supported us in the past. He was an original [Abu Sayyaf] member, but he left after about two years because he did not become our leader,” Sampang alleged.

The group, however, hated Congressman Abdulgani "Gerry" Salapuddin, a former MNLF commander.

“He did not help us. We asked him once to give us at least a few sacks of rice. But he failed us. We could not kill him because he has a lot of armed men,” said Sampang.

Abdurajak and his followers got most of their firearms from government soldiers. “We bought guns from them,” said Sampang who used to join what he dubbed “retrieval operations.”

A military six-by-six truck would delive the guns along a stretch of highway controlled by the bandits. The soldiers would leave the cache of firearms on the roadside. They would cover it with coconut fronds and banana leaves. Then they would leave. The Abu Sayyaf would take the arms when the soldiers were gone.

“Sometimes the soldiers would set us up,” Sampang said. “But we were always ready for it. We would be watching the area for several days and if we know that it is a set-up we would not get the firearms for several days. There were always many of us when we collected the firearms in case there was a set-up,” he added.

The other guns, especially those used by the group of Khaddafy, were bought from Malaysia. The big guns, however, that were shown on television during the 2000 kidnapping of foreign tourists from Sipadan were old pieces bought from military camps in Zamboanga, said Sampang.

Disaffection

Sampang, however, left the Abu Sayyaf in 1999.

“I left because it seems the group already lost it original reason for being. The activities were not anymore for Islam but for personal gratification. We abduct people not anymore for the cause of Islam but for money,” he said.

He claimed that in the past they kidnapped people because they did not have funds to buy arms, bullets and food. “There was a time when we didn’t depend anymore on foreign funding. We were ashamed to just ask money from our sponsors abroad."

Sampang said a lot of the original Abu Sayyaf members already wanted to surrender to the government, “but they were afraid that either the military would kill them or the group itself would hunt them down.”

Sampang did not surrender. He just escaped from the group and changed his name and worked for a non-government group. He claimed his former comrades could not harm him.

“I am still armed and a lot of people I helped in the past are protecting me now,” he said.

The group of Abu Sabaya went to his house once and tried to kill him. But Sampang was ready with his guns. “Allah protected me. I was able to escape,” he said.

Sampang said he does not like Abu Sabaya and the younger members of the group. “They would behead dead soldiers and play with the bodies. They would swap the heads and cut the sex organs,” he said, adding he could not stand it anymore.

Sampang is not leaving Basilan, however.

“I was born here and I will die here. I want to help my people,” he said.