Military awards await Marine officer and men who finished off ASG’s Janjalani in Sulu

By Ronron
January 22, 2007

Top military awards await the Philippine Marine officer and men who fought off with the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) in September last year in Sulu, which resulted to the death of the bandit leader Khadaffy Janjalani.

Marines spokesman Lt. Col. Ariel Caculitan on Monday said recommendations for conferment of Medal for Valor Award were already given for 2Lt. Romulo Dimayuga, 24, and other awards for the latter’s men, both survivors and fallen, for their “individual heroic deeds.”

Dimayuga and his 26 men of the Marines Force Reconnaissance Class 12 under the 3rd Marine Brigade headed to Barangay Tuga in Patikul, Sulu before dawn of September 4, 2006 with a mission to neutralize the ASG group encamped in the area allegedly led by Janjalani.

“In that particular operations, we were aware based on intelligence information that it was an ASG group under Khadaffy Janjalani,” Dimayuga told Manila Shimbun in a phone interview yesterday.

“What we have been doing since August 1 (2006 under OPLAN Ultimatum) was intelligence information-driven. So, wherever we are assigned, we really go there. And in that particular operation, I can safely say that we are sure (about Janjalani’s presence),” he added.

Dimayuga and his troops positively located Janjalani’s group past 1:30 am of September 4 after hearing voices of the suspected bandits and seeing bunkers and small huts.

Private First Class Juvelito Manalili, 26 (will turn 27 in July), one of Dimayuga’s men, told Manila Shimbun in a separate phone interview that earlier on September 3, they were called to a briefing for a “special mission.”

“There was an intelligence report about the exact location of the high value targets, including Janjalani and foreign leaders. So we were briefed about it,” Manalili said in Filipino.

He said that from their base at the 3rd Marine Brigade in Jolo, all of them were brought by truck to a point in Patikul where they started to walk. They departed around 8pm.

And then at 9pm, they started to walk towards their destination using a GPS (system) and compass. The troops arrived at their target almost five hours later.

“The area had many coconut trees and marang trees and other grasses and plants. We immediately hid by pairs behind the coconut trees,” Manalili recalled.

He said the area were filled with bunkers that were neck-deep, and there were also blue tents and “duyan.”

When they arrived, he said they heard snoring and saw some illumination coming from flashlights.

Dimayuga estimated the strength of the bandits present then at 40, but he claimed he did not really see Janjalani because their enemies were all wearing bonnets or caps or any form of covering on their faces.

Besides, when they struck at around 5 am, it was still quite dark, said Dimayuga. He had claimed earlier when he was first interviewed at the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Hospital in Quezon City two days after the encounter that they were as close as four meters to their targets.

“When they were waking up at around 5 am, there was one distinct voice, singing and a loud one. He could not have created that noise if he does not hold a high position. And he was really very noisy and no one was stopping him. So, in my opinion, that time, there was really a high-value target who holds a high position in the Abu Sayyaf,” he said in a separate interview aired on ABS-CBN channel also yesterday, and referring to Janjalani.

The group started hard the encounter by throwing grenades at their target, followed by successive gun fires. Manalili said he himself was armed with an M203 grenade launcher.

But reinforcements from the ASG starting arriving an hour later or at 6am, leaving them with no choice but to fight it off, said Manalili. The ASG grew to almost 200, another factor supporting their belief that they hit a high-value target.

Dimayuga said this reinforcement made it impossible for them to try to recover any casualties from their enemies, including possibly the body of Janjalani, which was found later on December 27 by Marine elements in Barangay Kabuntakas, also in Patikul.

Manalili said even if they informed in advance, or at around 3 am, the nearby military troops and their mother base about their positive findings at the site, the latter only arrived around 7am.

The intense firefight they initiated lasted until past 7am, leaving four soldiers killed instantly. Another one died later while being administered first aid.

Dimayuga, Manalili and 18 others were also wounded but one of the latter expired in Jolo, bringing the fatality count to six.

Informed of the confirmation of Janjalani’s death through the DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) test on his and his brother’s, Hector, tissue samples, Dimayuga said: “Then, the death of my six Marines happened for a cause.”

“We are very happy, because it was worth our sacrifices, of what we did. We even lost our comrades,” Manalili, for his part, said.

Immediately after the September 4, 2006 encounter, the slain soldiers were promoted to a rank higher, and were given due financial assistance, including one from President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

The others who were wounded were immediately given the Military Wounded Medal Award.

But more than that, Dimayuga was especially recommended to receive the Medal for Valor, the highest that a military man can get, and the rest, including the six fallen soldiers, were either for the Distinguished Conduct Star, Gold Cross Medal, or the Military Merit Medal with Spearhead Device.

Caculitan said the recommendations are now being deliberated on by members of the Awards and Compensation Committee of the AFP.

“We hope that with the confirmation of Janjalani’s death, such deliberations would speed up,” Caculitan said.

AFP Public Information Officer Lt. Col. Bartolome Bacarro, in a news briefing at Camp Aguinaldo yesterday, said that the AFP personnel will not get a share from the $5 million reward money that is being offered for the neutralization of Janjalani.

“The AFP cannot be a recipient of those reward system. That is our job, to go after them (ASG). And that (reward) specifies (that it is only) for the civilians,” Bacarro explained.

He assured, nevertheless, that there will definitely be a recipient to it, and that is the person or persons who provided the military with information about the whereabouts of Janjalani.

“The Armed Forces of the Philippines (and) the Philippine National Police would collaborate and cooperate with the US government because they are the ones that will give the reward,” Bacarro said.

Dimayuga said he expects to be back to Sulu in a few months after he fully recovers from his injuries and complete his retraining in Cavite. After getting hit in the chest and on his leg during that September encounter, Dimayuga said he could still not do what he could prior to that incident./DMS