ABU Sayyaf bandits beheaded the school principal they kidnapped last month in the island province of Sulu, a military official said Monday.
Western Mindanao Command (Wesmincom) spokesman Major Ramon David Hontiveros said the decapitated head of Gabriel Canizares was found around 5 a.m. Monday near the Caltex Gas station in Jolo, the capital town of Sulu.
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Hontiveros said Canizares' head was placed in a sack and was left near the gasoline station.
He said relatives of the victim confirmed that it was the head of Canizares.
"The terrorists (Abu Sayyaf) have again proven their barbaric nature today," Hontiveros said of Canizares' beheading.
The Abu Sayyaf bandits seized Canizares around 4:30 p.m. of October 19 in the village of Tanum, Patikul town while he was on the way home to the village of San Raymundo, Jolo.
Canizares, the school principal of Kanague Elementary School in Patikul, was aboard a passenger jeep together with other teachers when the Abu Sayyafs waylaid the vehicle and seized him.
The bandits demanded P2 million ransom in exchange for his release.
Hontiveros said the joint military and police forces that are working with the Crisis Management Committee (CMC) for Canizares' rescue will now shift to punitive actions.
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A lament for a
A lament for a teacher
Another head taken in the name of Islam.
A child will be weeping with his daddy gone.
What say you our dear and honest Imam?
Did you allow this horror, this madness that was done?
This is an event that wounds the soul.
The soul of the children at Mr. Canizares' school.
Fools are we to forget for such a deed so foul.
In this beheading, is Islam the main tool?
In a Catholic nation, the Christians are beheaded.
Will it be indeed, that the meek shall inherit the earth?
When shall a foul deed not a cause for mirth?
Why to such so few this Catholic nation in dread?
"How long shall they kill our prophets, while we stand aside and look"?(Bob Marley)
"How long until we have an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth?"
Vengeance is not the end and forgiveness is?
But justice should done before we all are dead.
A teacher's life, a precious gift as this
We will forget in a week ........this we dread.