MANILA, Philippines – The beheading of a school principal by the Abu Sayyaf Group could have been a retaliatory move over the success of the military and police against the Muslim extremist group and not against any personality, a Malacañang official said Tuesday.

“Mas nakikita natin yun na isang retaliatory move dahil po sa mga success o sa mga gains na nangyari na nagawa ng Armed Forces of the Philippines at Philippine National Police and not because of any personality coming over. At yan ang nakikita natin off-hand doon sa nangyari [We see it as a retaliatory move because of the success or gains of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and Philippine National Police and not because of any personality coming over. And that was what we saw off-hand on what happened],” said deputy presidential spokesman Anthony Golez.

Golez was reacting to a question during a press conference Tuesday on whether the beheading of Gabriel Canizares, 36, last October 20, was tied up with the visit of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton this November 12.

“I guess we can only speculate what the motives of the Abu Sayyaf are. But what is really important for us is kung ano ang response ng pamahalaan sa mga ginagawa nila [what the response of the government would be against what they did],” added Gary Olivar, presidential spokesman on economic affairs.

Golez said the military was doing its best to hunt down the terrorist group.

Golez also said that people should not see it as an embarrassment to the government.

“I think it is going to be a learning process for everybody that a fight against terrorism is the fight of everybody no [isn’t it]. So, hindi lang po masasabi natin na ma-eembarass ang gobyerno kundi maapektuhan ang buong sambayanan pagdating po dito [So we can’t say that it is only the government that will be embarrassed but it is the whole country that will be affected by this],” he said.

Olivar said that the government was firm in punishing the bandits for the gruesome crime.