Marines are sealing off all possible escape routes of the Abu Sayyaf in Basilan.
“Although there is a lull in fighting, our troops are moving,” Maj. Gen. Juancho Sabban, Armed Forces Western Mindanao Command deputy chief and Task Force Thunder commander, said in a telephone interview.
Sabban said the Navy has also set up a blockade to prevent the terrorists from fleeing by sea.
“We are covering all possible escape routes,” he said.
Sabban said ground troops are moving in after shelling Abu Sayyaf positions with 105 mm howitzers.
“This is part of our tactics,” he said. “We shell the target area where the enemies maintain a strong defense position. We do this to soften the resistance, then we move in.”
Sabban said the Abu Sayyaf has the advantage of knowing the terrain in order to ambush government troops.
The Abu Sayyaf band has broken up into small groups to try to elude pursuing troops, he added.
“The military is coordinating with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front to prevent any ‘misencounter’,” Sabban said.
Last Saturday 15 Marines, among them five young lieutenants, were killed in fighting the Abu Sayyaf in Ungkaya Pukan. The bodies of 13 of the 15 slain soldiers arrived at Villamor Air base last night, where they received full military honors.
Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro said the President wanted the offensive to continue amid appeals by bishops to end the fighting.
“We should attend to the families of these heroes. The operation will continue unabated, unceasing,” he said.
When Marines swooped down on the terrorist hideout, Abu Sayyaf commander Furuji Indama and his brother Umair alias Abu Jihad were killed.
Amid the military offensive, President Arroyo instructed yesterday the Department of Energy, the Department of Education and the Department of Social Welfare and Development to assist civilians affected by the fighting in Basilan and Sulu.
“We’d like to do a humanitarian offensive in Basilan and Sulu and the assignment of the DoE, together with the DepEd, would be to put up solar-powered science laboratories for students in the hinterlands of Sulu and Basilan,” she said.
Speaking at a command conference at the DoE at Fort Bonifacio in Taguig, Mrs. Arroyo said economic development remains her administration’s principal weapon against terrorism, as well as the means to pursue peace and progress in Mindanao.
“Economic development, which we draw from the arsenal of democracy, remains our principal weapon against terrorism,” she said.
“Ongoing peacekeeping operations against rearguard actions of a despised and defeated group are meant to clear the path for these provinces’ journey to peace and progress which terror has delayed for so long.”
Four Abus captured
Four suspected Abu Sayyaf terrorists were captured by Navy commandos during a raid in a safehouse in Barangay Tanjung, Indanan town in Sulu at about 2 a.m. Sunday, according to Maj. Gen. Ruben Rafael, Joint Task Force Comet commander.
The military has withheld the identities of the four, who are now undergoing tactical interrogation.
Rafael said the safehouse was being used by the Abu Sayyaf as an arms depot and transshipment point for ammunition and foodstuff purchased in Jolo and outlying areas.
“The raid characterized by precision and audacity caught the suspected Abu Sayyaf by surprise, giving them no time to react,” he said.
Rafael said 14 women and children found inside the terrorist hideout were temporarily held but later released after undergoing thorough medical examination.
“The raid on the ASG safehouses have cut off their support system, denying them much needed ammunition and other resources necessary for their survival,” he said.
The commandos, backed by helicopters and gunboats, also seized one M653 with bi-pod, three M16A rifles, three bandoliers, 300 rounds of armalite bullets, and a Motorola GP68 radio with charger.
Rafael said on Aug. 16, troops running after the Abu Sayyaf stumbled upon a marijuana plantation in the vicinity of Mt. Talipao.
The discovery of the plantation confirmed earlier reports that the Abu Sayyaf is engaged in the illegal drug trade to raise funds to replenish dwindling resources, he added.
Heroes, not sitting ducks
Two junior Marine officers were flown from the front in Basilan to Zamboanga City yesterday to belie reports that the Marines were overpowered by the Abu Sayyaf in an encounter in the mountains of Kurilam, Barangay Silangkum, Tipo-Tipo town last Saturday.
Marine 2Lt. Jordan Argete, one of the officers of the Force Recon Class-13, said the Marines were the first to fire as they penetrated the Abu Sayyaf’s lair.
“We were not sitting ducks, we were fighting like heroes, especially my comrades,” he told reporters at Edwin Andrews Air Base in Zamboanga City.
On the other hand, Marine 2Lt. Paolo Jose Handusay, another FR Class-13 officer, said the Marines surprised the terrorists as they raided their hideout.
“Kaya hindi puwedeng sabihin sitting duck kami,” he said.
Argete said before the Marines approached the ridge, they saw the Abu Sayyaf from the other side using flashlights to check their surroundings.
“That’s why we were the first to deliver the volley of fire that time,” he said.
“The first burst started the fierce battle, although our units that time were positioned lower than them, but we were prepared to fight.”
The Marines were not pinned down as reported in a newspaper, he added.
Argete said he told his superior Lt. Lugwig Salvador that they can take their objectives after assessing the position of the terrorists.
In searching the huts, the Marines saw the terrorists in bunkers and approached their positions, he added.
Argete said they did not retreat an inch but fought hard to retrieve their casualties.
“We cannot leave our comrades to our enemies, so we held our stand that time,” he said.
Argete said Salvador, who was among those killed, successfully maneuvered to allow them to recover the wounded Marines.
“We were able to accomplish our mission,” he said.
“Our comrades were intact, they were all complete together with their ammunition, firearms, and equipment. We would like to commend our teammates for their bravery.”
Seeing their comrades-in-arms being killed gave the Marines the strength and courage to approach their objective, Argete said.
Some 5,000 soldiers hunting down the Abu Sayyaf in Sulu have been ordered to wipe out the terrorists and capture Jemaah Islamiyah bombers Dulmatin, Umar Patek and Zulkifli bin Hir alias Marwan.
In the three days of fighting that started last Aug. 7, 27 Army soldiers and 41 Abu Sayyaf and Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) renegades were killed in a series of clashes in Indanan, Parang and Maimbung.
Last Aug. 9, Dulmatin – who goes by one name – was reported to have been wounded in a shootout with troops.
In Maimbung town, troops from the Army’s 33rd Infantry Battalion have captured an Abu Sayyaf camp occupied by Commander Gaffur Jumdail, brother of Abu Sayyaf leader Dr. Abu Pula, in Barangay Lapah without firing a single shot.
The terrorist camp located in the middle of a mangrove area was used by the terrorists as a field hospital to treat their wounded comrades.
The terrorists abandoned the place before the arrival of troops.
Soldiers found at the scene bloodied clothing, medical kits, combat packs, two rifle grenade cases, eight pairs of combat shoes, four military uniforms, four bandoliers, five camouflage shirts, four blasting caps, one pair of surgical gloves, eight syringes, three Qurans, and assorted medicine.
Army troops also recovered documents with “high intelligence value,” according to the military.
Armed Forces chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr. said the military retains its “large presence in the area” and presses on with the operations against the Abu Sayyaf.
“We have seven battalions in the area and 28 CAFGU companies,” he said. “If there is a confirmed presence of the enemy, then we will operate.”
Esperon said the military is checking if Abu Sayyaf commander Isinilon Hapilon was in a terrorist hideout during the raid.
“The directive to the troops is to continue their operations against the Abu Sayyaf... the objective is to destroy the Abu Sayyaf,” he said.
One of the M16 rifles recovered from the terrorists belongs to one of the Marines beheaded during the July 10 clash in Albarka, Esperon said.
Among those slain in the encounter were 2Lts. Ludwig Salvador, Jilfrey Leoveras, Roldan Samera, Ermin Soloren and Eugene Piñera; Pfcs. Peary Simeros, Ursulo Torres Jr., Eril Labares, Roldan Baroy, Renaldo Pedroso, Danilo Vergara, Manuel Tayaban Jr., Michael Aoigan, Julius Jove, and Private Virgilio Domingo. The Marines belong to the 64th Force Recon Company and Force Recon Class-13.
Diversionary attacks
Meanwhile, police have tightened security around the 32-hectare operation center of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) in Cotabato City due to mounting threats of diversionary attacks by the Abu Sayyaf.
Since Sunday, police have been guarding strategic points inside the ARMM compound, where dozens of government offices and a regional trial court are located.
Guards have since been preventing joggers from entering the premises from dawn to dusk as part of security measures.
Chief Superintendent Joel Goltiao, ARMM police director, said his men have been on full alert after last week’s fierce clashes between troops and the Abu Sayyaf in Basilan and Sulu.
Police have been receiving reports from civilian informants that the Abu Sayyaf would carry out attacks in other provinces in retaliation for the deaths of their comrades in last week’s encounters with the military, he added.
ARMM Gov. Datu Zaldy Ampatuan, inter-agency multi-sectoral regional peace and order council chairman, is known for his hardline stand against the Abu Sayyaf.
The Ampatuans have repeatedly been targeted with one bomb attack after another by militant factions in Maguindanao in the past four years.
In Jolo, five suspected terrorists surrendered to Brig. Gen. Ruperto Pabustan, the island’s counter-terrorist task force commander.
Pabustan said it was not known if they were involved in Saturday’s clashes on Basilan, or in ambushes that left 27 soldiers dead in Jolo last week.
Lawmaker chides NPA
Meanwhile, a lawmaker criticized the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) yesterday for ordering attacks in other parts of Mindanao.
Bohol Rep. Adam Relson Jala said the order could only mean that there is a “tactical alliance between one terrorist organization and another.”
“It is unfortunate that the communist leadership wants to attack other parts of Mindanao and possibly the Visayas where the military took reinforcements for troops battling bandits in Basilan and Sulu.”
Jala said that would be a diversionary tactic that would ease the military’s pursuit of the Abu Sayyaf.
“The communists would be giving indirect assistance to the group of bandits being pursued by the military,” he said. “Or they want to join the fray in Mindanao to show everyone that they are a bigger force to reckon with.”
Peace negotiations with communist rebels were stalled months after the 9/11 bombing in the United States which, together with European nations, classified the CPP-NPA as a terrorist organization.
European governments froze the assets, particularly bank accounts, of CPP-NPA leaders, including Jose Maria Sison, who is based in the Netherlands.
Communist leaders said they would not agree to the resumption of talks unless the US and Europe lifted the terrorist tag on them and unfroze their bank accounts.
For years, the government has been trying to negotiate peace with the CPP-NPA to end Asia’s longest-running communist insurgency.
A former spokesman for communist insurgents, Satur Ocampo, is now a lawmaker representing the party-list group Bayan Muna. – with Paolo Romero, Jaime Laude, Roel Pareño, John Unson, Jess Diaz, Michael Punongbayan