Bullets For Breakfast

Scenes of a Soldiers’s Life in Basilan

A soldier’s life is about honor and valor and courage and country but, all too often, it is also about death and destruction and suffering and confusion.

The current battle against the Abu Sayyaf in Basilan has more than its share of these conflicting images.

The encounter in Lamitan town earlier this month, when the bandits and their hostages occupied the Jose Torres Memorial Hospital and the adjacent St. Peter’s Church, reminded us once more of the high price of armed conflict, a price paid by our soldiers who have to face the bullets.

The images on this spread, taken by STAR chief photographer Val Rodriguez from June 2 to 5 in Basilan, bring into focus the realities of a soldier’s life: dinner on the run, catching up on sleep when and where you can, carrying literally the burden of arms, facing the death of comrades and the disruption of life for ordinary folk who have nothing at all to do with armed bandits.

We salute our soldiers, and wish for their safe and speedy return from this conflict where there really are no winners. -Photos by Val Rodriguez