Sulu civilian deaths: Teodoro to conduct own probe
Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro would conduct his own investigation into last Monday’s clash between government troops and Abu Sayyaf bandits in Maimbung, Sulu that reportedly left eight civilians, including three minors, dead, to assure the local folk that he is taking the incident seriously.
Lawyer Nelson Victorino, Teodoro’s head executive assistant and spokesman, said the defense secretary would fly to Sulu on Saturday to meet with military commanders and local officials to discuss the details of the encounter, which also left two soldiers and four bandits dead and five other soldiers wounded.
“The secretary will go to Sulu to show that he is not taking this sitting down, considering that we have a strong partnership with the people of Sulu led by Gov. Sakur Tan,” Victorino said.
“We have had gains in our operations in Sulu and we want to preserve that,” he told The STAR in a phone interview.
Earlier, Armed Forces chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr. said the encounter was the result of a legitimate operation.
This, as the inspector general of the Armed Forces Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom) is also conducting an investigation into the clash.
Esperon said he was also personally looking into the matter, adding that the deaths of civilians are something that should be probed.
Composite teams of the Joint Task Force Comet were conducting an operation to rescue Filipino-Chinese businesswoman Rosalie Lao and two others, who were believed abducted by a group of Abu Sayyaf bandits led by a certain Kumander Jamji, when the encounter reportedly took place near a mangrove area.
Maj. Eugene Batara, Westmincom spokesman, said the Abu Sayyaf band was led by Albader Parad and Abu Pula, who are both included in the
Meanwhile, peace advocates challenged newly installed Speaker Prospero Nograles yesterday to prove his worth by stepping into the issue on the civilians’ deaths.
Sulu Gov. Sakur Tan deplored the incident and vowed to lead local officials in prosecuting the soldiers allegedly involved in the carnage.
“Innocent civilians were killed. The children were killed with bullets in their heads. The national government should look into this undue bloodshed,” Tan said in a text message to The STAR.
Peace activists, among them Catholic priests and nuns, said the incident should give Nograles a chance to prove he has “a big heart” for the people of
Fr. Bert Layson, director of the Interfaith Dialogue Initiatives here of the Rome-based Oblate of Mary Immaculate (OMI) congregation, said there should be an immediate “independent inquiry” into the Sulu incident.
“The government should look deeper into this vicious cycle of collateral damage to civilians of the pacification campaign in Sulu,” he said.
Philippine flags were flown at half-mast in Sulu on Tuesday to mourn the deaths of the civilians. – With John Unson
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