Community leaders 'informed MILF leaders of SAF presence'

MAMASAPANO, Maguindanao - Community leaders tipped off local Moro commanders about the presence of the Special Action Force (SAF) that came to Barangay Tukanalipao in Mamasapano, Maguindanao on January 25.

A barangay official in Mamasapano told a local television program that he informed officials of the 105th Base Command of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front of the presence of the policemen, whom he thought were Moro rebels.

He said MILF commanders he called to verify had informed him that they were not initiating any tactical maneuver in the area at that time.

Some community elders said they, too, had verified from local Moro commanders the identities of the men in combat uniforms that arrived.

"It was dark and we can't see the patches on their uniform from a distance. We were also scared to go out and check," said one of them.

More than 40 members of the police’s SAF who came to find two wanted terrorists, Malaysian bomb maker Zulkifli Bin Hir, also known as “Marwan,” and his ethnic Maguindanaon cohort Basit Usman, were killed in the ensuing 10-hour running firefight with MILF rebels who engaged them for allegedly intruding into their enclave without prior notice.

The MILF central leadership admitted that they also lost guerillas in the encounter. Local officials said 11 MILF members were killed in the incident.

A SAF member who survived the encounter, but lost his firearm as he retreated from the scene, said they were attacked from three directions while guarding an open field near the route of their companions who proceeded to the hideout of the two terrorists in an open field not far from an irrigation canal straddling through a corn farm.

The policeman, speaking on condition of anonymity, said some of his wounded companions who ran out of ammunition crawled near the irrigation dike, where rebels finished them off with rifle shots to their heads.

“We ran out of ammunition so there was no way we can stop them from coming close,” the policeman said in Filipino.

The MILF’s figurehead, Al-Haj Murad, and their chief negotiator, Muhaquer Iqbal, both said the encounter would have been avoided had the Philippine National Police coordinated with the joint ceasefire committee in keeping with security protocols stipulated in all of their interim security agreements with government, including the July 1997 Agreement on General Cessation of Hostilities.

Barangay folks said the SAF contingent was outflanked by MILF guerillas and members of the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters that joined the foray when the policemen trying to escape carrying wounded companions came close to a BIFF enclave in nearby Barangay Mangapang, also in Mamasapano.

Villagers said members of the BIFF had also brutally finished off with shots to the head no fewer than ten wounded policemen, whose firearms they carted away as they repositioned to a nearby swamp.

“Two of the wounded policemen who were executed even managed to strap tourniquets on their legs which were hit by bullets in the initial encounter,” a villager said.

A peasant named Badrudin Nanganlan, 21, and a five-year-old child, Sarah Sampulna Panangulon, were killed in the crossfire.

The victim’s 19-year-old wife, Sarah, told reporters her husband was immediately buried in keeping with Islamic tradition of burying the dead within 24 hours from the time of death.

The SAF-MILF gunfights that lasted for more than 10 hours also left a villager, Said Pasawilan, wounded.

“Villagers were running everywhere. We heard loud automatic gunshots and explosions,” said Ahmida Muda, whose family was forced to evacuate to a safer area for fear of a repeat of the encounter.

Saida Esmael, also a resident of Barangay Tukanalipao, said they tried to leave and head to the town proper as the firefight ensued, but balked and stayed at one side of the road as the exchanges of gunfire intensified.

Esmael Hashim, incumbent chairman of Barangay Tukanalipao, said he noticed the SAF men arrive and was surprised that none of them came to see him to coordinate.

He said previous police and military operations in their barangay were properly coordinated with community leaders and the local government unit of Mamasapano.

 “It was about 4 a.m. (January 25) when we heard gunshots near the barangay Islamic center and that was the start of a long encounter,” Hashim said.