“No,” says General Lito Sobejana in his native language Tagalog. “You cannot pay the ransom.” I listen to him as he speaks patiently on the phone with the desperate wife of a man kidnaped by Islamic extremists. He translates the conversation when he hangs up the phone. “She wants to try to raise ransom money,” he tells me. “They told her they would cut off his head today if she didn’t pay. But we have a strict ‘no ransom’ policy.” The day before my meeting with the general, his men attempted a rescue and there was a fatal firefight. Six...