MANILA, Philippines -- Malacañang admitted on Wednesday that the Abu Sayyaf, said to be responsible for the abduction of a television news team, remains a force to reckon with.

“For as long as there are groups still existing there, there is [a] force to reckon with,” Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said.

He also noted that Dulmatin and Umar Patek, operatives of the Indonesia-based terror group Jemaah Islamiyah who have been hiding out in Mindanao, remain unaccounted for and could be providing inspiration to a new generation of Abu Sayyaf fighters, as well as acting as conduits for funds.

“Dulmatin is not yet accounted for, Patek is not yet accounted for. These are, shall we say, leaders of this radical or fundamentalist group that somehow give them sustenance through their teachings,” Ermita said at a press briefing.

“And I won’t be surprised if they are getting some funding from somewhere,” he said.

“This is the reason why the intelligence community is very particular about foreigners coming in and out of Mindanao, especially those who may be suspected of giving assistance to their brothers…” the Palace official further said.

Ermita said they suspect the abductors of an ABS-CBN news team are second-generation Abu Sayyaf members, including sons of the group’s organizers, who may believe they are promoting the tenets of Islam.

He recalled that when government was negotiating with the Moro National Liberation Front in 1993, they were warned by some of the erstwhile secessionist group’s leaders in Jakarta that younger people would take over the movement if they failed to come up a with a peace agreement .

“In other words, they had an inkling already that, indeed, the Abu Sayyaf movement was in the making as early as 1993,” Ermita, a former military general, said.

“Now marami sa kanila [Abu Sayyaf members] napuksa na syempre [pero] yung ibang mga kabataan [many of them have been eliminated, but the younger ones], who have the same orientation, sila ngayon ang nagpapatuloy sa inaakala nila na [they are the ones continuing what they believe to be] of course, [the] fight for Islam, which is not necessarily true,” he said.