EI SUN OH
THE Manila Times reported recently that a certain Filipino doctor had funded or at least donated to those extremists who carried out a grenade attack on an entertainment outlet in Malaysia. Rumors, too, have once again surfaced in Sabah as to the possibility of a new wave of kidnappings along the seacoasts facing the Philippines. It is said that as the armed standoff in Marawi is winding down with the Philippine military successfully recapturing the city from the fanatical armed elements, the latter is short of cash and supplies on the one hand, and long in extra “manpower” freed up from the siege, to take up piracy and kidnapping as both a source of livelihood and a way to replenish the material resources for their extremist causes.