ZAMBOANGA CITY—Most of them bore hack wounds. One had his head nearly severed.

And as they lay dying or dead, one of the Abu Sayyaf bandits sent a text message to the wife of one of the fallen Marines: “Pinugutan na namin ang mahal mo (We have beheaded your loved one).”

Rosalyn Toroy, 26, broke into tears when she showed the Philippine Daily Inquirer the message. It was sent from her husband’s own cellphone, which the Abu Sayyaf bandit had apparently taken from his body.

Private First Class Darylle Toroy of Iloilo City was among the 23 soldiers—18 of them Marines—who were killed in a daylong gunbattle with the Abu Sayyaf at Tipo-Tipo on Basilan island on Wednesday. At least 21 of the bandits also died in the clashes.

On Friday, the caskets of the slain soldiers, each draped with a Philippine flag, lay in rows at the gymnasium of the Western Mindanao Command here.

The Toroys were only recently married. Rosalyn had not received a more cruel text message.

The bandits, it turned out, had not touched her husband’s head.

But they did hack him in the legs and he also had a gunshot wound in the body, Rosalyn said.

Last remembrance

Of all the possessions Sergeant Toroy had with him when he went into battle that day, all that was left with Rosalyn was the broken casing of his stolen cell phone.

“Heto ang naiwang ala-ala ni Darylle (This is the only remembrance Darylle left),” Rosalyn said.

He sent his last message to his wife at around 5 a.m. on the day of his last battle. “He said he was going into an operation and he said goodbye (nagpaalam pa ito),” Rosalyn said.

‘They are God-less’

She said the bandit who sent his message through her husband’s phone “even called us pigs (baboy).”

“I told them they were God-less,” Rosalyn said in tears.

“At least, he was brought home with his face intact but he had slash wounds in the legs,” she said.

Driven by poverty

The mourners at the gym included Levi and Cecilia Roxas. They came all the way from M’lang, North Cotabato, to weep for their son, Private First Class Enrico Jaravata Roxas, 23, of the 67th Marine Raider Company.

He was among those inside the coffins.

Enrico’s body was riddled with bullets. He also had hack wounds in the lower thighs.

The Roxases said their son joined the Marines three years ago because of poverty. “That was the reason he became a soldier,” Cecilia Roxas said.

Then she embraced her son’s casket.

Pining for justice

Sgt. Reynaldo Torejas, a former member of the Presidential Security Group, suffered a harsher fate. His head was nearly severed, according to his elder brother Cecilio, from Zamboanga Sibugay.

Speaking in Filipino, Cecilio said: “He was also hit by a sniper shot in the head. What happened to my brother was awful.”

“Lahat ng mga marinong namatay ay may mga taga (All the Marines who died had hack wounds),” Cecilio said.

Another brother, Pablo, said Torejas had long wanted to retire from the military service and go into business.

Cecilio said bitterly: “There should be genuine justice here. The President should issue a really strong order to finish off these rebels. They should be wiped out from this earth (dapat mawala na sila sa mundo).”

Pablo said that before that could happen, the government should be serious in its campaign against the Abu Sayyaf.

To the last breath

Cecilio said he was proud of his brother and of the other soldiers because they stood their ground despite being overpowered.

“They were at a disadvantage because they were surrounded but even if they were outnumbered they really fought to their last breath,” Cecilio said, trying to check his emotions.

He said his brother and the other slain Marines were not actually part of the assaulting team but had been ordered to recover the bodies of two junior officers killed earlier in the first wave of clashes, as well as reinforce the other units.

The two officers were 1st Lt. Chester Barela of the 1st Scout Ranger Battalion and 1st Lt. Dhell Jhun Evangelista of the Light Reaction Company.

They literally walked to where the Abu Sayyaf bandits were waiting.

“The fighting was fierce. They were beaten but the Abu Sayyaf were not satisfied. They even hacked them. That was too much,” Cecilio said.

Family survival

Arlene Miranda, wife of Marine Sgt. Elmer Miranda said she was at least fortunate compared to the other widows because she has a job as a midwife.

For others, family survival was a big question on Friday.

One of the grieving women at the gym said: “How many more wives will lose their husbands, how many more children will lose their fathers, how many more will be next? How many more soldiers will sacrifice their lives for a war without end?”