DW: What does the Abu Sayyaf (ASG) want to achieve with its recent beheading of Canadian citizen John Ridsdel?

Joseph Franco: The ASG has often killed hostages they kidnapped for cash, but these are often Filipinos who couldn’t afford to pay the ransom. The ASG killing a Western hostage is a big thing, however, as they usually keep them alive for extracting maximum ransom value.

… Joseph Franco is Associate Research Fellow with the Centre of Excellence for National Security (CENS), a constituent unit of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.