Col. Mark Supnet, chief of the military's Task Force Zamboanga, said there was a "pattern" in the killings that was similar to incidents that had taken place in the island province of Sulu.
The Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) said the victims were either killed with the use of caliber .45 or 9-mm pistols and shot in the head and body. Also, in all cases, the firearms of the victims were taken by the culprits who were riding tandem on a motorcycle.
At least 12 persons had been killed since October 19 in separate incidents in the city. The victims included three policemen, two soldiers, three businessmen, an airport employee, and two other civilians.
"We cannot discount the possibility that it is the handiwork of the (Abu Sayyaf urban terrorist group)," Supnet said.
Supnet said he ordered his men to avoid wearing the uniform when they go out of camp after finishing their duty so they would not become targets.
Acting Zamboanga City police chief Sr. Supt. Mario Yanga said the killings could be part of a bigger plan to sow fear in Zamboanga City.
Yanga was designated officer-in-charge effective Sunday by Zamboanga Peninsula Police Director Jaime Caringal.
Yanga, the current Zamboanga Peninsula operations officer and former city police director, heads the local police force in the absence of Sr. Supt. Francisco Cristobal, who filed a month leave of absence to attend to his ailing father in Pangasinan.
The acting police chief ordered the implementation of strict security measures and mobile checkpoints in the various areas as the search for the killers goes on.
"In response to the threat of terror, we have positioned men in strategic areas, they have specific orders to apprehend persons acting suspiciously, especially three men on board motorcycles," Yanga said.
Cristobal, who had reportedly taken a leave of absence to attend to an ailing father, was believed given a "graceful exit" for his failure to curtail the unabated killings in the city.
In the latest shooting incident, three gunmen shot to death a policeman, SPO1 Rodrigo Deza, 47, of San Jose, Zamboanga City, in broad daylight on Sunday along Nunez Extension. The gunmen took Deza's service firearm.
Witnesses told police investigators they saw the back rider who was armed with a .45 caliber pistol shoot Deza several times in the body. When Deza fell from his motorcycle, one of the suspects alighted from the vehicle and took the policeman's .45 caliber pistol.
Aside from Deza, the urban terrorist group was also believed responsible for the killings of two members of the Marines, a member of the Philippine Air Force assigned with the Judge Advocate General's Office in the Western Mindanao Command (WestMinCom), an Air Transportation Office employee who was shot by armed men on a busy street just a stone's throw from a police checkpoint, and a cop who was liquidated early in the morning, last month, along San Jose Gusu Road.
Yanga said the police already know the modus operandi of the suspects. He said three motorcycle-riding gunmen go out on a liquidation mission, with the man in the center doing the shooting and the second passenger taking the firearm of the soldier or policeman.
He said the police, in coordination with the Task Force Zamboanga, are going after the hit men.
"I expect to get results before I go out in a month's time," he said, referring to the period when he will be officer-in-charge of the Zamboanga City Police Office.
He said he accepted the position after the mayor granted his demands for communications equipments like handheld radios, the doubling of the police force's fuel allowance, and the increase of police operational funds.
The Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiyah were believed to have trained new recruits who would carry out test missions in key cities in Mindanao, according to unconfirmed reports.
The government has deployed 5,000 troops since August in the southern island province of Sulu to flush out Abu Sayyaf militants and Jemaah Islamiyah members believed hiding in the hinterlands. (With a report from U. Israel)
