Basilan folks flee home as troops preposition against MILF and ASG targets

By Ronron
July 24, 2007

Thousands of residents in Al-Barka town in Basilan have fled their homes to ensure their safety as government troops prepare to strike at alleged members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) who were responsible for the death of 14 Marine soldiers during the July 10 clash there.

Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Social Welfare Officer Racma Ambolodto-Imam told Manila Shimbun in a phone interview Tuesday that 983 families or 4,915 persons from six barangays in Al-Barka sought temporary shelter at a nearby school and their relatives’ houses there and in neighboring towns “because of fear that they will be caught in the crossfire.”

“They moved on their own out of fear for their lives,” Imam said.

She said the evacuees are residents of Barangays Guinanta, Macalang, Linuan, Magcawa, Danapah, and Sitio Bohe Lunang.

Iman said the residents began leaving their homes last Sunday, a day after the government announced the planned punitive police action of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in Basilan.

She said some stayed at a primary school in the same town, while the rest have gone to their relatives’ houses.

It can be recalled that 930 residents in Al-Barka immediately left their homes after the July 10 clash, according to ARMM Police Director Chief Supt. Joel Goltiao, but they returned last week, thinking everything was going back to normal.

Last Saturday, National Security Adviser and acting Defense Secretary Norberto Gonzales said the AFP is already authorized to conduct punitive police actions against their July 10 clash actors so as to get justice for the slain soldiers, especially the 10 who were mutilated.

The decision was arrived at after the MILF refused to turn over the alleged killers of the 14 soldiers. The MILF claimed none of their members committed the beheading and the incident was a legitimate encounter.

AFP Public Information Officer Lt. Col. Bartolome Bacarro said yesterday a total of 5,000 soldiers are now in Basilan, and they will be utilized in the pursuit against at most 20 identified MILF and ASG members believed to be responsible for the incident.

The soldiers had just finished verifying reports about the presence of abducted Italian Catholic priest Fr. Gian Carlo Bossi and his captors in said vicinity when they engaged the armed fighters in the morning of July 10. Bossi was released nine days later in Lanao del Norte province.

Basilan-based 1st Marine Brigade commander Col. Ramiro Alivio told Manila Shimbun yesterday that actual engagement with their targets has not taken place yet because they are still awaiting the warrants of arrest to be issued by the local court.

But Goltiao said the police have yet to file the case against the suspects because the AFP and the Philippine Marines have yet to give them copies of the death certificates of the slain soldiers.

The police said they plan to charge for multiple murder and multiple frustrated murder eight identified suspects and several John Does.

However, AFP chief of staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon, Jr. claims they know at most 20 identified suspects, mostly from the MILF’s 114 Base Command.

“I would have been a lot happier if they turned over the suspects because after all, they (MILF leadership) know who they (suspects) are. So, I hope that in the interim, some positive things could still develop heavier casualties or penalties to anybody, to any case, to anything,” Esperon told reporters in Camp Aguinaldo on Monday night.

But Esperon said there is no more extension of the deadline that lapsed midnight of Sunday for the MILF to heed to the government’s demand.

“Our troops are moving. We have completed the transport to Basilan of the required forces,” he said.

Asked how they want to get to the suspect, whether dead or alive, Esperon said: “Of course, if they are alive, better… And once they are in, then they should be put to trial. There will be cases.”

“We always want them to be alive and face the consequences,” he added.

Esperon assured that since they have targets in mind, then the operation will not spill over to other people in the area, especially the residents.

But despite this assurance, Imam said the local residents are not taking chances, thus the evacuation.

Esperon stressed the need for the operation, saying “it is not to avenge the (slain) soldiers but to uphold the very basic right of the government to protect its citizens, to uphold the law.”

“If we do not punish the beheaders, there would be future beheaders because they will think that beheading people is perfectly alright,” he said.

Unlike the MILF, which says the operation will affect the peace process, Esperon believes otherwise, or hopes for it, at least.

“We are trying our best to uphold the primacy of the peace process. But as much as possible, the peace process will not be scuttled. We know the importance of the peace process. The people of Mindanao know the benefits, the dividends of peace, even our soldiers,” Esperon said.

“So we have always believed that punishing the barbaric act does not have to fall under the ambit or within the ambit of the peace process. It simply has to be covered by the laws of the land. Murder should be punished,” he added./DMS