19 civilians Killed, Says MILF; Armed Forces Issues Denial

August 28, 2001, Inquirer, 19 civilians killed, says MILF; Armed Forces issues denial, by Allan Nawal and Carlito Pablo, Inquirer News Service,
Posted: 11:22 PM (Manila Time)

Civilians killed

AT LEAST 19 civilians, 14 of them minors, were killed when a military unit stormed a remote village in Sumisip, Basilan, early Monday morning in pursuit of Abu Sayyaf bandits, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front said Tuesday.

MILF spokesperson Eid Kabalu said the 10th Infantry Battalion entered Barangay Baiwas in the wake of an encounter with the Abu Sayyaf but, "when they failed to find any of their enemies," fired instead at the civilians.

"There was an encounter and the soldiers returned to the village and fired indiscriminately into the direction of the civilians," Kabalu told defense reporters in Camp Aguinaldo by phone. "Perhaps they got angry and were carried away."

Kabalu said that the same military unit also seized six civilians from the area whose fate remains unknown.

But the Armed Forces of the Philippines, while admitting that there was a military encounter with the Abu Sayyaf on Monday morning, strongly denied Kabalu’s claim.

Col. Francisco Gudani, deputy commander for operations of the AFP Southern Command based in Zamboanga City, said there was no such report pertaining to the incident.

Army spokesperson Lt. Col. Jose Mabanta Jr. said he spoke with 10th IB commanding officer Maj. Reynaldo Ordoñez, and Ordoñez asserted that his battalion was not involved in any encounter in the area Monday morning. "There is no such report as far as the 10th IB is concerned," Mabanta said.

The AFP Public Information Office said the 10th IB did not figure in the clash. The units involved were the 1st Marine Battalion Landing Team and the Marines’ 62nd Force Reconnaissance Battalion. The PIO also said two bandits were killed in the encounter, their bodies recovered by the Marines.

Kabalu said he verified the incident with the local MILF commanders in the area.

"It was an obvious incident of massacre. Imagine, those people are helpless civilians. They are indeed our sympathizers but they were unarmed," he said.

Kabalu said the soldiers also arrested six male residents "and we don’t know what happened to them."

In an earlier interview Tuesday, AFP spokesperson Brig. Gen. Edilberto Adan said Abu Sayyaf elements under Abu Sayyaf leader Abu Sabaya are believed to be in Sumisip. The town was the site of an Abu Sayyaf ambush last Saturday which resulted in the death of five persons.