(Eagle News)– Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella said on Tuesday that the operations against Abu Sayyaf group will be relentless, despite of fatalities to the government’s side.
“It is unfortunate that a number of our troops have already lost their lives. However, as [National Defense] Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said on August 29, ‘We are going full force,'” Abella said during a press conference.
15 soldiers were already killed in separate clashes against the terrorist group, while the military estimates Abu Sayyaf deaths at 21.
Lorenzana on Monday revealed that five more battalions will be deployed to Sulu to meet President Rodrigo Duterte’s directive to finish Abu Sayyaf.