GONE TOO SOON
Soldiers prepare to carry the remains of the officers who were shot dead in Jolo, Sulu. The fallen soldiers were given military honors at the Villamor Air Base in Pasay City on June 30, 2020.
PHILIPPINE Army chief Lt. Gen. Gilbert Gapay on Tuesday decried the killing of four soldiers in Jolo, Sulu, saying the victims were murdered by the policemen who flagged them down.
Gapay maintained that the four soldiers properly introduced themselves to the policemen, who were manning a checkpoint in Barangay Walled City of Jolo.
He said there was no misencounter because what transpired was a “rubout.”
The official said if there was an exchange of fire, the policemen would have been injured as well.
A police report earlier said the soldiers were the first to fire.
Gapay rejected this.
“We find the report fabricated. Full of inconsistencies. Parangsine (Like a movie) and very misleading,” he fumed in a press briefing in Villamor Air Base as the remains of the three soldiers were airlifted to Manila from Jolo.
“Masamaangloobnamin ( We feel bad) for what happened to our Army personnel, who were murdered by policemen in Jolo,” he added.
The victims were identified as Maj. Marvin Indamog, Capt. Irwin Managuelod, Sgt. Eric Velasco and Cpl. Abdal Asula. Indamog and Managuelod graduated from the Philippine Military Academy.
Indamog was the commanding officer of the 9th intelligence service unit while Managuelod was a field station commander.
The four belonged to a military intelligence team and were pursuing a trail of Abu Sayyaf members, bomb makers and suicide bombers as ordered by the leadership of the army’s Sulu-based 11th Infantry Division.
Gapay demanded a “full-blown investigation [to] be conducted on the death of four soldiers from the hands of PNP (Philippine National Police) forces.”
Interior Secretary Eduardo Año ordered an investigation of the Jolo incident.
“I want to know what really happened and no stone must be left unturned,” Año said in a text message to TheManilaTimes.
The police and the Army have different versions of the shooting incident.
“This is a very unfortunate incident that should have not happened. The AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) and the PNP have been working closely in the fight against the terrorists,” the Department of the Interior and Local Government secretary added.
A police spot report identified the four soldiers as “male suspects.” It said the soldiers fired first after “escaping,” prompting the police to retaliate.
The military report said the soldiers were flagged down at a checkpoint. One of the soldiers alighted and introduced himself as a member of the Armed Forces.
The soldiers parked a few meters away from the police station but were shot dead.
“The soldiers were on a mission to identify the location of known terrorists in the area. Based on eyewitness accounts, no altercation transpired between the two parties nor was there any provocation on the part of Army personnel to warrant such carnage,” Gapay said.
The AFP backed Gapay’s stand, noting that there was no “exchange of fire,” contrary to the narration of the local police.
“If you will see, based on the images we got, the soldier was near the vehicle while the other one is still inside. Initial information we got was that [some of] the soldiers were fired upon while they remained inside the vehicle except for Maj. Indamog, who alighted from the vehicle to speak with the police,” Brig. Gen. Edgard Arevalo, AFP spokesman, said in a television interview.
“We assure our soldiers and their family members that we would like to get to the bottom of this,” he added.
PNP spokesman BGen. Bernard Banac said the police officers involved in the incident have been disarmed and are under restrictive custody.
Meanwhile, Senators Panfilo Lacson and Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa on Tuesday sought a thorough and impartial investigation of the soldiers’ death.
“A speedy but thorough determination of the facts that led to the tragic shooting of four Army officers by police in Sulu is critical and cannot be emphasized enough,” Lacson said.
“Our security forces already have their hands full in their fight against their common adversaries such as terrorism and insurgency in Mindanao. Allowing disunity in any form would give the enemy an unwanted advantage that could prove fatal for our nation,” he added.
Dela Rosa said an impartial investigation should be done and justice must be served.
“Proper and constant coordination must be established on the ground at all levels at all times. Ground commanders of both AFP and PNP must diffuse tensions and prevent these from escalating while investigation is ongoing,” he said.