MANILA, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) is deserved to be proscribed as a terrorist organization as they are responsible for a number of high-profile attacks in the country, a top Philippine military official said on Wednesday.

    Maj. Gen. Ben Dolorfino, commander of the Western Mindanao Command, said the military is open to helping the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in its effort to formally declare the ASG as a terrorist group.

    Earlier, NBI Counter-Terrorist Unit head Ricardo Diaz said they are preparing the necessary petition before a trial court for the proscription of the ASG as a terrorist organization under Republic Act 9372 or the Human Security Act.

    Supporting Diaz, Dolorfino said the ASG deserved to be proscribed as a terrorist group "definitely because they are involved in terrorism. That is a terrorist organization long ago."

    "All the pieces of evidence are there, there are a lot of them. I don't think there will be a problem for them to be proscribed as a terrorist organization because the evidence against them is overwhelming, like bombings and kidnappings," said Dolorfino.

    "There are a lot of high-profile cases that would prove that it is a terrorist organization. there is no problem on that because a lot of incidents which we can site and some (arrested Abu Sayyaf suspects) are publicly admitted their role in kidnapping," he said.

    Dolorfino said that once the ASG is proscribed as a terrorist organization, this will help the military in its campaign to crush the group. "We will support them (NBI) because that will help us in our campaign against the Abu Sayyaf," he said.