Zamboanga City, Philippines - Al-Qaeda-linked Muslim militants on Thursday seized five electric power workers on a southern Philippine island, police said.

The victims were reading electric metres at residential houses when they were seized at gunpoint by Abu Sayyaf rebels in Tuburan town in Basilan province, 900 kilometres south of Manila, police said.

Basilan's police chief, Senior Superintendent Salik Macapantar, said a search and rescue operation was launched.

Earlier in the month, another band of Abu Sayyaf rebels seized a three-member television crew from the Philippines' biggest television network and their guide in nearby Jolo island.

The rebels released the crew 10 days later after a 20-million-peso (449,438-dollar) ransom was reportedly paid to the kidnappers.

General Alexander Yano, the military chief of staff, said the Abu Sayyaf has resorted to banditry after its key leaders were killed.

Yano said the Abu Sayyaf remained without a leader who could unite the rebels and provide ideological direction to the group.

"We look at them as a loose organization," he told a forum at the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines. "Some of them have been conducting their own operations and have now degenerated into plain bandits."

The Abu Sayyaf has been responsible for deadly terrorist attacks in the Philippines. The United States has linked the group to the al-Qaeda international terrorist network. (dpa)