AFP to review guilty verdict vs soldier in al-Barka debacle

MANILA, Philippines—The Armed Forces of the Philippines will review the general court martial’s guilty verdict against Colonel Almikandra Undug, one of the soldiers involved in the Al-Barka debacle in 2011, which killed 19 members of the Philippine Army’s Special Forces.

Military spokesman Colonel Arnulfo Marcelo Burgos Jr. said on Friday that the verdict is “recommendatory and shall be forwarded to the final convening authority who is the AFP Chief of Staff General Jessie Dellosa.”

Undug will face admonition, suspension from command and duty for six months and reduced in ranking of 50 files below from his present seniority listing.

If Undug was in No. 10 in promotion list, he would be placed to No. 60, Burgos said as he explained what the reduction of 50 files meant.

Undug, a member of Philippine Military Academy Class of 1982, is already qualified to be promoted for a one-star position.

“As the final convening authority, General Dellosa may approve or disapprove the sentence imposed to Undug,” he added.

“Upon evaluation and approval, Colonel Undug’s sentence will be implemented immediately,” he said.

After a series of hearings since May, Undug was found guilty after a majority of the seven-member law panel voted in a secret balloting and closed-door session which was deliberated on January 8.

In an earlier interview  with INQUIRER.net, Colonel Jose Feliciano Loy Jr., a law member of the court martial, said that Undug committed “imprudence without inappropriate clearance from higher headquarters and violation of chain of command by allowing the Military Scuba Diving Course students in actual operations on October 18,  2011 in Al- Barka, Basilan.”

Most of the soldiers from the scuba diving course were deployed to the war-torn Basilan for the first time.

Undug, a Muslim from Sulu, was the most senior of all the four officers who faced trial over the Al-Barka debacle. He is known for capturing Abu Sayyaf leader Commander Robot (Galib Andang) in 2003, who was killed in a prison siege two years later.

Nineteen soldiers of the Special Forces were killed after they clashed with Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) members in Al Barka town, Basilan on October 18, 2011.

The troops were ambushed by the rebels and turned into a clash when they were supposed to arrest Abu Sayyaf leaders Furuji Indama and Long Malat and MILF subcommander Dan Laksaw Asnawi.

The military tribunal has already cleared two other officers in October last year–former Commandant of Special Forces School Lieutenant Colonel Orlando Edralin and former Commander of Special Operations Task Force Basilan Colonel Alexander Macario– for “insufficiency of evidence” for their involvement over the bungled military operations.

The commander of the 4th Special Forces Battalion, Lieutenant Colonel Leonard Pena, has yet to present his  pieces of evidence and in a scheduled hearing on January 26.