COTABATO CITY , Philippines – Another soldier went berserk inside Camp Abubakar in Maguindanao yesterday, killing two companions and seriously wounding another, an Army spokesman said.
Col. Jonathan Ponce, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, the suspect, Pfc. Jeferson Brillo, escaped into the dense jungle east of Camp Abubakar, the former bastion of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, after he shot dead Sgt. Alex Gumata, their detachment commander in Barangay Tugaig, Barira town, and Cpl. Ernesto Dumaboc.
Barangay Tugaig is the center of Camp Abubakar, also known as Camp Iranun, now the command base of the Army’s 603rd Brigade.
Ponce said Brillo, who belong to the Army’s 37th Infantry Division, gunned down his two companions, who were senior in rank, when they reprimanded him for drinking liquor while on duty.
Another corporal, Landy Laniera, was seriously wounded when he tried to stop Brillo from attacking his slain superiors using his service assault rifle.
The incident came less than three weeks after an Army sergeant belonging to the 2nd Mechanized Infantry Battalion also gunned down two companions and wounded five others, three of them officers, in a shooting frenzy also in Camp Abubakar.
Ponce said soldiers are still in pursuit of Brillo, who escaped bringing with him his issued firearm. – John Unson