Marines failed to coordinate with MILF, but MILF should not have opened fire, says probe on July 10 incident in Basilan

By Ronron
August 5, 2007

Joint investigators from the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) found a lapse on the part of the Philippine Marine troopers when they passed by an MILF community in Basilan last July 10 that later led into a deadly encounter.

According to the report of the joint Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities (CCCH) of the government and the MILF, the government forces should have coordinated their movements in the area in search for abducted Italian Catholic priest Fr. Gian Carlo Bossi with the CCCH that time.

Government CCCH chair Brig. Gen. Edgardo Gurrea said this is in compliance with the existing ceasefire agreement between the government and the CCCH, which came into force in 1997, purposely to avoid mis-encounters.

The July 10 incident, which happened for almost nine hours at Barangay Guinanta in Al-Barka town, claimed 14 lives of Marines soldiers, 10 of whom were mutilated. The MILF said they also lost four fighters, while seven others were wounded.

“There’s a need for them (Marine troopers) to coordinate may be not directly to the MILF CCCH but to the government CCCH, through the local monitoring team of Basilan,” Gurrea said in a phone interview yesterday with Manila Shimbun.

According to MILF chief peace negotiator Mohagher Iqbal, a portion of the joint CCCH fact-finding mission report reads: “From the foregoing facts and circumstances gathered, it appears that there are lapses in coordination when the Marines conducted operations in (Barangay) Guinanta (in Al-Barka, Basilan) and other neighboring barangays in search for Fr. Bossi pursuant to the established mechanisms with the general ceasefire agreement entered into by the GRP and the MILF.”

The Marine commander in Basilan, Col. Ramiro Alivio, had earlier said it purposely did not coordinate with the MILF when they launched the July 10 search operations for Fr. Bossi because of suspicions that members of the secessionist group were actually holding the missionary who was abducted last June 10 in Zamboanga Sibugay.

Besides, he said the MILF cannot claim that it was its territory because “there is no such thing as an MILF territory” as far as the government is concerned.

But even if the fact-finding mission found the Marines to have erred in not making prior coordination, Gurrea said it was also wrong on the part of the MILF fighters to open fire right away.

“There was violation not only on the government side but on the MILF side also. It doesn’t mean that they (MILF) will start shooting just because they found our forces there. They could have clarified everything by contacting their men or the local CCCH in Basilan,” Gurrea said.

Gurrea disclosed that during their probe, they found out that the MILF fighters “initiated the firing” because they were of the impression that the Marine soldiers were positioning for an offensive against them when they were offloading from a truck.

“When our soldiers were alighting from the truck that was stuck in mud, their action was misconstrued by the MILF as a plan for offensive operations,” Gurrea said.

“It was normal of course to dismount. It was not an offensive. There was purely miscommunication,” he added.

Asked if the fact-finding mission recommended sanctions for these lapses on the part of the government and the MILF forces, Gurrea said: “Based on the implementing guidelines of the ceasefire mechanism, if any members are found liable (for any mistakes), the organization can impose sanctions.”

It can be recalled that the MILF has earlier cleared its men of any liabilities as it maintained that the incident was a legitimate encounter.

Gurrea said it is because of that miscommunication between the forces involved in the July 10 incident that they, as investigating body, recommended among others for the revisit or strengthening of the ceasefire agreement that shall make the latter responsive to similar situations in the future.

“When the ceasefire agreement was signed in 1997, the situation then was different. So we have to make it attuned to the present times, like in the aspect on the role of the local monitoring teams,” he said.

Asked to elaborate, he said he would rather that the peace panels thresh this out and later come out with their final findings.

Gurrea said it is also along this line that they recommended for the immediate reactivation of the Adhoc Joint Action Group (AHJAG) of the government and the MILF, whose yearly mandate expired in June.

The AHJAG is the mechanism that calls for the interdiction of lawless elements seeking refuge with the MILF.

The joint fact-finding mission started last July 27 and ended last August 1. Among its significant findings are the identification of four Abu Sayyaf rebels as those responsible for the beheading of four of the 10 mutilated soldiers./DMS