Moros fear meeting their match

Mutilation of their dead enemy is common among the Tausug, the Muslims of Sulu.

On Oct. 10, 1977, Brig. Gen. Teodulfo Bautista and his men were massacred by Moro rebels in Patikul, Sulu during peace talks with the rebels. All the bodies of the dead soldiers were mutilated.

I know this for a fact because I was covering the Ministry of National Defense at that time for the now defunct Reporters were shown pictures of the dead soldiers, including the general.

After they were felled by bullets, the soldiers’ prostrate bodies were hacked with the Tausug machete.

My father, Ramon Sr., who was still alive at the time, did not express surprise when I told him about the ghastly fate of General Bautista and his men.

My old man had been assigned in Sulu as a lieutenant in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

He said that he and his men in the Philippine Constabulary ( PC) camp in Bilaan town were ordered to reinforce top- ranking officers from Manila who were ambushed on their way back to Camp Asturias in Jolo town after inspecting the Bilaan camp. The officers were to have flown back to Manila.

“When we got to the ambush site, the group that had just inspected our camp was wiped out,” I recall my father telling me.

What my father found despicable was that the penises of the victims were stuffed into their mouths by their ambushers.

How did he and his soldiers react to the desecration of the dead, I asked my father, who retired from the PC in 1970.

Dad said they were able to identify all the outlaws — remember, Nur Misuari’s Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) was still non-existent at the time — who desecrated the soldiers’ bodies.

“We did the same thing to them,” my old man said.

He said the avenging soldiers burned down the village where the ambushers lived, but spared their families. They shot the perpetrators of the ghastly crime in front of their parents, brothers, sisters, wives and children.

I remember that when my father was reassigned in Sulu in 1964 as a major, the Tausug soldiers — who were under my father when he was a lieutenant — would tell me that the outlaws never messed with the “small but terrible lieutenant.” My father was 5’ 3” tall.

At the time, I was already a teenager when we returned to Sulu. I

years old, a severed head was presented to my father by his soldier. We were on the balcony of the house) when the soldier, who was driving a jeep, raised the severed head for my father to see.

It was a vague recollection, and I asked my father about it when I brought up the story about the mutilated bodies of General Bautista and his men.

The old man said the severed head belonged to an outlaw who killed and beheaded one of his soldiers who was on furlough.

My father said he ordered a manhunt for the killer and had him beheaded in public.

The Moros fear and respect the

* ** Customs “whistleblower” Lourdes Mangaoang was recently reassigned as chief of the X-ray unit at the Bureau of Customs (BoC) Port of Manila and Manila International Container Port apparently as her reward for supposedly exposing the shabu (methamphetamine hydrochloride) smuggled into the country concealed in four magnetic lifters.

Mangaoang celebrated her return to one of the most lucrative positions in the bureau, but the celebration was short- lived.

Finance Secretary Sonny Dominguez ordered Customs Commissioner Leonardo Guerrero to rescind the iron lady’s new assignment.

Dominguez was told about Mangaoang’s alleged shenanigans when she was the X- ray chief before. She allegedly made a pile as X- ray head.

The finance chief was told that Mangaoang was allegedly one of the most corrupt officials in the bureau.

The scuttlebutt in the bureau is that what this woman wanted she always got. She used charm on men.

A finance secretary, a customs commissioner, a customs police chief, a famous broadcaster and a retired police general were among those who were captivated by her charm.

She accused the broadcaster of extorting money from her, a charge the latter denied in court during a trial.

The broadcaster said he and Mangaoang were lovers for a long time, and their relationship ended when he told her to use a feminine wash in the middle of their lovemaking.

Mangaoang charged me with extortion, along with the famous broadcaster.

The broadcaster and I were acquitted of Mangaoang’s trumpedup charge by the Manila Regional Trial Court years ago.

The broadcaster is my brother Raffy. her