MANILA, Philippines -- (UPDATE 4) President Macapagal-Arroyo ordered on Monday a massive manhunt for the group that beheaded school principal Gabriel Canizares in Jolo, Sulu.

?The President sympathizes and deeply condoles with the family of Gabriel Canizares,? deputy presidential spokesman Anthony Golez said, reading from a prepared statement.

?The President has instructed the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police to form a task group to investigate this matter and at the same time, the President also instructed (them) to do a massive manhunt for the people responsible for this heinous crime.?

Abductors beheaded the 36-year-old Jolo school principal who was seized last October 20, the military said on Monday.

The severed head of Gabriel Canizares was recovered at a gas station in Jolo town at around 5 a.m., said Major David Hontiveros, spokesman of the Western Mindanao Command.

His body remains missing, police said.

Two members of the bandit group Abu Sayyaf, riding in tandem on a motorcycle, allegedly threw the plastic bag containing Canizares's head toward the gas station.

Hontiveros said authorities have yet to confirm if any ransom has been made or paid for Canizares?s release.

Canizares was on board a mini-bus in Patikul town, Sulu province when he was accosted by about a dozen armed men a couple of weeks ago.

?The joint AFP-PNP team that was coordinating with the Crisis Management Committee for Canizares?s rescue will now shift to punitive action,? Hontiveros said, referring to the military?s Task Force Comet and the police?s Task Force Canizares.

On the other hand, military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Romeo Brawner Jr. said Canizares?s case was ?not a simple kidnap for ransom? incident.

"Prior to his (Canizares) kidnapping, marami ng threats sa buhay niya. And dun sa sasakyan, siya lang ang dinukot ng mga bandido (there have been a lot of threats to his life. He was the only one taken by the bandits in the vehicle)," Brawner said, adding that police are still looking into other possible motives behind the abduction.

"The people of Jolo are condemning this dastardly act," Jolo municipal mayor Hussin Amin said in a television interview aired in Manila.

The Abu Sayyaf demanded a P2-million (42,373-dollar) ransom, which his relatives refused to pay.

The Abu Sayyaf has been blamed for many of the country's worst terrorist attacks.

They mostly operate out of Jolo, a hotbed of a decades-old Muslim separatist insurgency, where small numbers of US military advisers are providing training to Filipino counter-terrorism forces.