By ELLEN TORDESILLAS
WE condole with the family of the seven Marines who were killed in Patikul, Sulu last Saturday and those of the eight policemen who were killed by a landmine allegedly planted by the New People’s Army in Allacapan, Cagayan Monday.
The police officers killed were Police Officers 2 Dexter Cubilla, Angelbert Mateo, Elmark Rodney Pinated, Jonnel Bowat and Ronald Castulo, Police Officers 1 Erick Brioso and Jerome Sanchez and PO3 Vladimir Tabarejo.
In the Patikul incident, the fatalities were Second Lieutenant Alfredo Lorin VI, Private First Class Jay Alasian, Private First Class Jayson Durante, Private First Class Andres Bogwana, Private First Class Rene Gare, Private First Class Roxan Pizarro, and Private First Class Dominador Sabejon, Jr.
In the case of Allacapan blast, no one is casting doubt in the version of the spokesman of the Cagayan provincial police office, Inspector Cesar Orlanes, that the15-member team of the 24th Special Action Force of the Philippine National Police were on their way to Allapacan for a medical checkup.
“They were wearing police athletic uniforms and were supposed to see a PNP medical team to undergo an ECG,” Orlanes said.
The PNP vehicle the policemen were riding on stepped on a landmine placed in the middle of the road in Barangay Cataran. “After the rebels detonated the landmine, they opened fire,” Orlanes was quoted in a newspaper report.
In the Patikul incident, however, there are several versions why the Marine Recon team was in Patikul early morning of Saturday.
But what has been established is that the fatalities were members of Marine Reconnaissance team that was in Patikul for a test mission. They were scheduled to return to Manila this Friday, May 31.
The Marine Recon is the elite of the elite of the Philippine Navy. It is a Special Forces unit of the Marines which is considered an elite corps of the Philippine Navy.
As the word “reconnaissance” implies, the Marines Recon team gathers information about the position, activities, resources, etc., of an enemy or potential enemy which they pass on to the operating troops.
One version is that the Marine Recon team was on a mission to track down the kidnappers of Casilda Villarasa, wife of Sgt. Faustino Villarasa.
The official version of the military is that, it was a “chance meeting-encounter.”
Col. Jose Johriel Cenabre, commander of the 2nd Marine Brigade and head of Joint Task Force Sulu and Maj. Ramon Zagala, spokesman of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, said two Marine companies, numbering about 100 soldiers, were conducting military operations against the local terrorist group when they clashed with a large group of Abu Sayyaf in Barangay (village) Tugas.
Zagala said the Abu Sayyaf fighters were on higher ground. Aside from being in a vantage position, Cenabre said “Our troops were not able to reposition and retaliate because the engagement was within the civilian area, which is adjacent to a mosque. The attackers took advantage of the civilians, thus making it more difficult for our troops to fire back.”
Patikul’s Chief of Police, Senior Insp. Conrad William Gutierrez, however, said it was an “ambush.”
Information we gathered from military sources , who declined to be identified, support the ambush version of the Patikul police. They said the members of Recon team were on a security operation for a “logistics run” of the Marines.
What was that particular “logistics run”? They were going to the market for their food and other supplies.
It would not be easy for the military to admit to an ambush because that means there was a failure of intelligence. Why didn’t they know that there was a large group of Abu Sayyaf in the area the Marines Logistic team would be passing?
It’s the same thing with the Allapacan blast. Why didn’t their intelligence network know about the planting of the landmine in the middle of the road by the NPA?
Failure of intelligence.