Flash floods tore through two cities on Mindanao Island in the southern Philippines . . . flooding, landslides and falling logs killed more than 1,000 people and destroyed roads and homes after the island was struck by typhoon Washi . . . Philippine President Benigno Aquino declared a state of national calamity today in order to facilitate aid and rescue operations . . . Mindanao Island is home to the al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf, a radical Islamist separatist group and criminal gang that was responsible for a November hotel bombing and repeated kidnappings of foreigners . . . Abu Sayyaf will likely seek to capitalize on political infighting likely to consume Manila following the flood disaster by increasing its kidnapping . . . the large Muslim population on Mindanao is expected to be disillusioned by the weak government response to the disaster.