Is it possible for dead men to engage soldiers in an encounter that would be soon followed by the beheading of 14 Marines? It is, if we ask the authorities who filed the charges on the basis of which the warrants of arrest were issued. The plot thickens further when the identities of a few others who are included in the warrants are taken into consideration.
BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
Bulatlat
Vol. VII, No. 29, August 26-September 1, 2007
Is it possible for dead men to engage soldiers in an encounter that would be soon followed by the beheading of 10 Marines? It is, if we ask the authorities who filed the charges on the basis of which the warrants of arrest were issued.
Judge Leo Jay Principe of the 9th Regional Trial Court issued on July 26 warrants of arrest for murder for at least 130 suspected members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) – which is fighting for an independent Islamic state in Mindanao – and the bandit Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) in connection with the beheadings of 10 Marines after an encounter in Barangay (village) Guinanta, Al-Barka, Basilan on July 10.
Among those included in the warrants of arrest are Ustadz Suwaib Budihan, Abdullah Kalitut, Jalana Ramirez a.k.a. “Bungot,” Hadji Gafur Mahmud, and Munib Salih. All five are deceased, according to Dr. Abdul Manar Saliddin, chairman of the Basilan-based human rights alliance Jaga (Watch).
“They have been dead even before the July 10 encounter,” Saliddin told Bulatlat in an interview. “In fact some of them have been dead as early as 2003.”
But there are two more among those included in the warrants who are also already dead, aside from the five already mentioned, Saliddin said “We are (right now) trying to find out who among them are already dead aside from the five we were able to identify,” said Saliddin.
Encounter and beheadings
The July 10 encounter broke out amid Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) search operations for kidnapped Italian priest Fr. Giancarlo Bossi in Basilan.
According to a report by a joint fact-finding team composed of investigators from the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the MILF, a convoy of soldiers belonging to the 1st Marine Brigade entered Al-Barka on July 10. The convoy was comprised by two dump trucks, an M35 6x6 truck, a Land Rover, and a V150 tank, the joint fact-finding report – submitted Aug. 3 to GRP and MILF peace negotiators Rodolfo Garcia and Mohagher Iqbal, respectively – stated.
Not knowing their way around, the Marines were pointed by local policemen toward Barangay (village) Guinanta, but were warned not to go into the area because the MILF had around 150 men stationed there.
The Marines, who thought MILF camps were in another village and not in Brgy. Guinanta, entered the said village. One of the dump trucks was mired in the mud, leading the Marines to send back the M35 and the V150 to help.
The report cited an MILF commander who goes by the name Kumander Hood as saying that his men were hiding behind the bushes when the Marines entered. “We watched them closely but we held our fire,” the report quoted Hood as saying.
When the M35 and the V150 reached the dump truck stuck in the mud, the Marines alighted and did a perimeter sweep. The MILF fighters were alarmed, thinking the Marines were preparing to attack. One of the soldiers stumbled into an MILF fighter and sounded an alarm. The MILF fired the first shot in an encounter that lasted for about seven hours.
At late afternoon that same day, the MILF fighters were convinced by the organization’s Coordinating Committee for the Cessation of Hostilities (CCCH) to withdraw. The Marines pulled back to an abandoned madrasah.
The MILF later agreed to allow the Marines to recover their dead and rescue their wounded. But the Marines refused, saying that snipers were still firing at them. Still later, the MILF declared that only Basilan local government personnel and police could retrieve the bodies of the dead Marines.
The retrievers found 23 dead Marines all in all. Ten of the bodies were found to have been beheaded.
The AFP was quick to point to the MILF fighters as the perpetrators of the beheadings – an accusation the top MILF leadership vehemently denied.
On July 26, Principe issued warrants of arrest for at least 130 suspected MILF and ASG members allegedly involved in the Brgy. Guinanta encounter. The warrants include the names of at least five men confirmed to have been dead even before the July 10 encounter.
The inclusion of at least five dead men in the warrants of arrest could cast a shadow of doubt on the charges filed in connection with the July 10 encounter.
Politically-motivated charges?
The plot thickens further when the identities of a few others who are included in the warrants are taken into consideration.
Also included in the warrants is Ustadz Salim Panawalon, the one-handed barangay captain of Guinanta, where the encounter and beheadings took place. Last Aug. 8, he filed a complaint before the AFP to protest his inclusion in the charge sheet. He is now reportedly in hiding.
Panawalon ran for Al-Barka mayor last May, but lost, according to Saliddin. “He was with the opposition,” Saliddin disclosed.
Panawalon lost in the Al-Barka mayoralty race to Kalam Jakilan, who ran under a slate led by former Basilan Gov. Wahab Akbar and his first wife Jum.
Wahab Akbar now represents Basilan’s lone district in Congress, while Jum is now governor. He and his wives Jum, Cherry, and Nur-in all ran under the Atienza wing of the Liberal Party – which, while not part of the administration coalition Team Unity in last May’s senatorial and local elections, supports President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
The Liberal Party split into two factions in 2005 following the outbreak of the so-called “Hello Garci” scandal.
The so-called “Hello Garci” tapes are a series of recorded and allegedly wiretapped conversations in which a voice similar to Arroyo’s is heard instructing an election official, whose voice sounds like that of Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano, to rig the polls. Their surfacing in mid-2005 renewed widespread suspicions of fraud in the 2004 presidential election and revived calls for the Arroyo’s removal or resignation from office.
The controversy generated by the “Hello Garci” scandal, among other things, led to infighting within the Liberal Party – with a group led by then Senate President Franklin Drilon aligning with the anti-Arroyo forces and another group, led by then Manila Mayor Lito Atienza, choosing to support Arroyo.
“So there could be politics involved there,” said Saliddin – referring to Panawalon’s inclusion in the warrants of arrest.
It was Representative Akbar who, in a privileged speech on Aug. 2, identified four of the Marines’ beheaders as Umair Indama, Nurhasan Jamiri, Buhari Jamiri and Suaib Kalibon.
The Jamiri brothers are included in the warrants of arrest issued by Principe. Indama was killed in an encounter in Basilan earlier this month, while one of the Jamiri brothers has surrendered to the military.
The Basilan representative in his speech cited an eyewitness account from one of the wounded Marines whose hand was amputated because one of the beheaders was after his ring.
“The subject cannot get the ring because it was too tight so the subject ended in amputating the hand of the Marine,” Akbar said. “Bringing the hand of the Marine home, then cut his finger just to get the ring.”
The Basilan representative did not in his privileged speech explain why Indama, the Jamiri brothers, and Kalibon were being pointed to as among the perpetrators of the July 10 beheading. Bulatlat
