Lieutenant General Gilbert Gapay, commanding general of the Philippine Army, expressed belief that the death of four soldiers at the hands of policemen in Jolo, Sulu, last Monday was a “rubout”.
Gapay, who personally received the remains of three of the four soldiers at Villamor Air Base in Pasay City on Tuesday, said the troops did not engage the cops in a firefight so it couldn’t be considered a case of a misencounter.
“There is no misencounter, talagang hindi pumutok ‘yung tropa namin. Nandoon ‘yung mga baril nila sa baba, and they know it, these are PNP personnel. That’s why, kung may misencounter at nagkaputukan, palagay niyo walang tatamaan na PNP? So there was no misencounter here, it was a rubout,” he said
“We have lost four good men, four veteran Army intelligence operatives who were killed or I would say murdered by policemen in Jolo,” he said.
Colonel Ramon Zagala, Army spokesperon, described misencounter as an engagement between friendly forces without one party knowing that the other party is an ally.
“This is common (misencounter), it really happens especially when we talk about the fog of war and there is lack of communication. But in this case, our soldiers clearly identified themselves that they were military during the checkpoint,” Zagala said in a separate television interview over ANC on Wednesday.
What angered Gapay was the police report that he read from the Jolo Police Station which he described as “fabricated, full of inconsistencies, parang sine, and very misleading.”
According to the police report, the soldiers, who were armed and in civilian attire, escaped after being flagged in a checkpoint and pointed their guns towards the cops, prompting the latter to fire shots. This was denied by Gapay.
“We can’t accept it. This is part of our job, you know. We get killed in performing our job but getting unnecessarily killed in the hands of your partners, I think it’s different,” he said.
Gapay said there are nine police personnel involved in the incident, around four to five of them fired the shots while the others served as lookouts.
“After na mapatay nila lahat they fled. SOP ba ‘yun na.. Hindi ba kapag namatay you have to cordon the area and wait for SOCO [Scene of the Crime Operatives]? Wala, nagtakbuhan lahat. So ano ibig sabihin noon?,” he asked.
The remains of Major Marvin Indammog, 39, commanding officer of the Army’s 9th Intelligence Service Unit; Captain Irwin Managuelod, 33, field station commander; and intelligence operative Sergeant Jaime Velasco, 38, were flown via a Philippine Air Force (PAF) plane from Zamboanga City to Villamor Air Base.
The slain soldiers were given military arrival honors.
Meanwhile, Corporal Abdal Asula, 33, another intelligence operative, will be buried in Sulu.
Gapay said the soldiers were actually tailing two alleged suicide bombers affiliated with the militant Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) when they were intercepted by the police in a checkpoint.
The ASG is behind some of the most vicious crimes in Mindanao, including bombings and kidnappings among others.
“Imagine the lost opportunity there? Two bombers supposed to be captured and neutralized nakawala sila. You know the potential of these two bombers of sowing terror and executing terrorist again so saying. It’s also a missed opportunity for us,” he said.
Zagala also insisted that there was no attempt to flee on the part of the soldiers, contrary to what was stated in the police report.
“They were told to proceed to the police station and they were compliant. No less than the team leader, Major Indammog, alighted from the vehicle to proceed to the station where he was confronted by the police at the rear of the vehicle. There is no action to flee but he was shot and the other four,” he said.
Captain Managuelod was even inside the vehicle and working on his laptop to track the suicide bombers when he was gunned down, he added.
Gapay said he expects that the provincial director of the Sulu provincial police office and the municipal director of the Jolo Police Station should be relieved pending the results of the investigation by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).
In reaction to Gapay’s strong-worded statements, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenanza appealed to all military officials to just wait for the results of the NBI’s investigation.
“It’s not good to speculate. The accounts from both sides are conflicting. Let’s wait for the NBI investigation,” he said.
PNP COOPERATES
General Felimon Santos Jr., AFP Chief of Staff and the immediate superior of Gapay, said he already talked to General Archie Francisco Gamboa, PNP Chief, and he assured the involved military units that the police leadership has committed to cooperate with the NBI in its investigation.
“All suspects are already under PNP’s custody. We will wait for the findings of the NBI,” he said.
Meanwhile, Major General Edgard Arevalo, AFP spokesperson, said Gapay drew his conclusions “from a learned evaluation” of information that were presented to him by the military.
“His point of view is supported by spot reports and eye-witness accounts of two civilians and of a motorcycle-riding soldier who was part of the operation trailing the SUV boarded by the four intelligence operatives,” Arevalo said.
The AFP also obtained the initial results of the autopsy on the bodies of the four soldiers, but Arevalo opted not to divulge the results yet so as not to preempt the probe being conducted. (Martin A. Sadongdong)
