Providing education to out-of-school youths could help address the root cause of the insurgency problem in Basilan, according to a Roman Catholic prelate.

Basilan Bishop Martin Jumoad said the government should provide education opportunities to the out-of-school youth to prevent them from being recruited by the Abu Sayyaf Group, a terrorist gang engaged in kidnappings and other criminal activities.

“If they are not in school, normally, they are vulnerable to recruitment,” he said over Church-run Radio Veritas.

Aside from education, the prelate also urged the government to address poverty by providing livelihood programs to the people.

“I really challenge the mayor, our government to really focus on what is best for our problems of insurgency here in Basilan,” Jumoad said.

The Basilan prelate said he is not convinced that plain negotiations will work with a terrorist group like the Abu Sayyaf, saying the bandits do not have any ideology.

“They (ASG) don’t have ideology. They are plain terrorists and I think there should be no dialogue with them… I know when it comes to terrorists, there are no negotiations,” he said.

At least 23 soldiers and an unverified number of ASG members died last Wednesday following a bloody encounter in Tipo-Tipo, Basilan.

Widely considered as a terrorist organization, the ASG has alleged links to the Al-Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden and has been engaged in kidnapping, bombing and extortion activities since 1991.