By Ronron
August 1, 2007
The operations in Basilan against suspected perpetrators of 14 Marine soldiers last July 10 will proceed again today (Thursday) following the completion of the investigation of the joint Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities (CCCH) yesterday.
“Yeah, at our own pace, at our own time,” said Chief Supt. Joel Goltiao, commander of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Police, when asked yesterday afternoon by phone if they will proceed the serving of arrest warrants today (Thursday) in Basilan.
The police in Basilan received last July 30 the arrest warrant against 127 members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) believed responsible for the July 10 incident in Barangay Guinanta in Al-Barka town.
Fourteen of the killed soldiers in that incident were later found mutilated.
The government initially gave the MILF until July 22 to turn over its members involved in the killing, otherwise, it will launch punitive police actions starting July 23. But the operations did not push through as the forces in Basilan said they are still awaiting the arrest warrants against their target.
Then, on July 27, a day after a judge in Basilan issued an arrest warrant against 127 personalities charged with multiple murder and multiple frustrated murder for the July 10 incident, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said the punitive actions should be postponed until July 31 to give time for the CCCH Fact-Finding Mission to complete its probe.
But again, the government ordered a calling off of the operations four hours after it kicked off last Tuesday morning since the CCCH is still not finished. Officials said the mission asked for an extension until midnight of Wednesday.
In an earlier interview by phone yesterday, MILF CCCH chair Von Al-Haq said the have already finished their investigation and they are expecting to sign at the end of the day the report.
He said the report will then be submitted to the chairmen of both the government and MILF peace panels.
Al-Haq did not disclose the initial findings of the probe saying he has to read it but he hinted of the possibility that the 127 names in the existing arrest warrant may have to be trimmed down.
“It’s possible that the names in the warrant will be reduced,” he said in Filipino.
Reached for comment about this, Goltiao said the police has an open-mind about this, in fact, “we can await the result of the investigation.”
“That now depends on the judge (to reconcile the number of suspects),” Goltiao said of the possible need to trim down the list.
For his part, government lead negotiator with the MILF, retired Lt. Gen. Rodolfo Garcia, said it will be up to the Department of Justice “to look into the process” of “cleaning up” the list.
Garcia said if the investigation comes out with its own list different from that now in the hands of the police, it should be honored because “ours is a very detailed process in getting the information.”
“The moment the fact-finding report is out, we might need for a legal process to amend the (127) names as it could not be served anymore,” Garcia said of the existing arrest warrant.
He said the Secretary of the National Defense may be the one who will disclose the CCCH investigation findings to the media.
But Goltiao said they might not really be able to arrest any of the suspects today because they are concentrating on their intelligence gathering.
The police official has said that when some 300 policemen went to Al-Barka last Tuesday morning to start the service of the arrest warrants, the place was “almost abandoned,” with houses only being occupied by women and children.
He said they have received information that some of the suspects escaped to the next town of Tipo-tipo.
Goltiao did not say how many troops they will use for today’s operations and what time they will start “so we cannot let our targets escape.”
“We don’t want publicity anymore,” he said./DMS
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