Amid the bloody gun battles in Basilan on Wednesday that left 54 dead and scores other wounded, the Philippine National Police (PNP) sees no reason to deploy more police in the troubled island province of Mindanao.

Police forces in Basilan suffered minimal casualties during the clash with the Abu Sayyaf Group and erring Moro rebels but Director General Jesus Verzosa, PNP chief, said his men in the area will continue conducting joint operations with the military to finish off the bandits.

“There is no need for more deployment in Basilan, we have enough forces there,” Verzosa said in an interview.

Aside from the regular police forces in Basilan, a number of Regional Mobile Group members from the Visayas and hundreds of elite police Special Action Forces (SAF) commandos are currently in Basilan.

Some are regular SAF commandos while some are also newly-recruited from the PNP police unit who were instructed to hunt down the ASG as part of their test mission, one of the important requirements for them to be absorbed as regular SAF member.

Aside from aggressive operations with their military counterpart, Verzosa said they are now strengthening their ties with the local government units in Basilan in order to cripple the operational capability of the ASG and their cohorts.

The move, the official said, is aimed at ensuring that the ASG would be denied of support that enable them to successfully play hide and seek with security forces.

As security forces have been hunting down the ASG for a long time now, Verzosa admitted that another reason on the difficulties in the operation is the familiarity of the bandits of the terrain in Basilan.

“Our operations are usually hampered by the thick jungle in the area,” said Verzosa.

Another reason, he added, is the support that the ASG gets from some erring members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and even renegade members of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).

“There appears to be collusion especially in criminal activities,” said Verzosa.

On Wednesday, elite military units raided a large hideout of the ASG in Barangay Silangkum in Tipo-Tipo town. The number of the casualties on the government side, however, increased in the second clash wherein some erring MILF members allegedly joined forces with the ASG headed by Furuji Indama.

A total of 23 soldiers, including two junior officers, were killed while at least 21 others were wounded on the side of the government.

Military officials said at least 31 ASG members were also killed, including some bandit leaders identified as Jony Poy, Abdullah Hud Limaya (son of Hud Limaya the commander of 2nd Brigade of MILF’s 114 Base Command), and 114 MILF Base Command Commander Ashib Salim, Nurhasan Jamiri, Abdul Hud, and Moton Indama (reportedly brother of ASG Basilan-based commander Furuji Indama).