Wesmincom official denies ordering recall of aircrafts during July 10 clash

By Ronron
August 7, 2007

An official of the Armed Forces Western Mindanao Command (Wesmincom) denied on Tuesday giving an order to recall the aircrafts dispatched to provide air support to the engaged Marine troopers in Basilan last July 10.

Brig. Gen. Juancho Sabban, the Wesmincom Deputy Commander who was alluded to by a military source last Monday as the most possible source of the recall order, said in a phone interview that the internal probe of the military clearly stated that the air assets left the encounter site because of failure to communicate with the troops on the ground.

“It (claim of the military source about the recall order) is not true. There was no recall. Those are rumors that we don’t know who are circulating,” Sabban told Manila Shimbun in a phone interview last night.

“We have the findings of the military investigation and it did not say that the planes were recalled… Let us stick to the official findings,” he added.

According to the military source who was privy to the July 10 incident where 14 Marine soldiers were killed, 10 of them mutilated, there were two sets of air support provided to the engage troops that fateful day, but all left without even firing a single shot.

The source said the first dispatch was a Huey and two MG520 choppers that came from the Wesmincom base in Zamboanga City. Although it arrived at the clash site, it immediately left after a gunner aboard the Huey was hit from the enemy fire.

A second dispatch, composed of an OV10 bomber plane and an MG520 chopper coming from Sulu, arrived more than an hour later but also left immediately without firing allegedly because of an unexplained recall order.

The source said only the area commander can order the dispatch and recall of air assets during military operations. But the source said that at that time, Wesmincom chief Lt. Gen. Eugenio Cedo was attending the Mindanao Peace and Security Summit in Cagayan de Oro City.

Sabban admitted yesterday he was indeed calling the shots in that encounter, being the next commander in line.

But he said he did not order the recall, saying that when aircrafts are sent to operation sites, the ground commander takes control of them.

“Based on our command norms, when we order the pilots to go on mission, they are already beyond our control. And it has never happened that in a mission, there is a recall order,” Sabban stressed.

“Our Marines are getting killed already so why would we recall the planes?” he continued.

Sabban said the operational issues in the July 10 incident should just be put to a close now that the military investigation has long wrapped up already.

“Let us end this episode because our mission on the field is being affected already,” he said.

The slain Marines were among the government troops that verified reports about the sighting of abducted Italian priest Fr. Giancarlo Bossi in Basilan. Bossi, who was snatched on June 10 in Zamboanga Sibugay, was released on July 19 in Lanao del Norte./DMS