AFP chief brushes off Querubin remarks on fatal Sulu clash

MANILA, Philippines–Armed Forces chief of staff Gen. Emmanuel Bautista on Monday brushed aside the observation of retired Marine Col. Ariel Querubin that the death of seven Marines at the hands of the Abu Sayyaf in Sulu on Saturday may have been caused by a breach in military protocol.

Bautista, who visited the wake of the fallen soldiers at the Marine headquarters in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City, said the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) was not keen on reviewing the training doctrine of the Marine reconnaissance team despite the incident.

“Most of his statements … are unfounded and I don’t think that is the real situation. Colonel Querubin has long been retired (from the service),” Bautista said, who looked irate when asked by reporters to comment on Querubin’s observation.

A bemedaled Marine, the battle-scarred Querubin formerly served as superintendent of the Marine Philippine Marine Corps Training Center.

Querubin, a member of the Philippine Military Academy Class 1979, was awarded with the Medal of Valor–the highest military honor for bravery in combat—for leading the liberation of Kauswagan town, Lanao del Norte province from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in March 2000.

He was also credited for leading a military operation that led to the killing of Abu Sayyaf spokesperson Abu Sabaya in a sea encounter off Zamboanga del Norte in 2002.

In an interview with the Philippine Daily Inquirer, the retired Marine officer said the members of the First Reconnaissance Battalion led by 2nd Lt. Alfredo Lorin VI, who were sent on a test mission as part of their training, should not have engaged the Abu Sayyaf bandits.

“We still haven’t learned our lessons,” Querubin said, pointing out that Marines belonging to Recon teams are only deployed to “gather data and pass the data to the operating troops.”

But Bautista said the Marines, like any other soldier, were trained to engage and fire back at the enemies when faced with such situation.

“You cannot discount the possibility of an (encounter) whether you are in training or not. That is a possibility and that is what we prepare for,” the AFP chief said.

Asked if the AFP would review its training doctrine for the Marine reconnaissance team, he said: “There’s no such plan.”

“That is part of the curriculum of the training of the Marines, of the Force Recon. That is part of the training,” Bautista stressed.

He said an investigation into the incident had begun as part of the AFP’s standard operating procedure after a military operation “whether the outcome is positive or negative.”

“We conduct inquiries for the lessons we may learn out of these incidents. In fact, we document these and publish the lessons we learned,” he said.

Navy chief Vice Admiral Jose Luis Alano said the Philippine Navy had sent an investigation team to Sulu “to look into the exact reasons behind the event.”

He said the investigation was aimed at making sure “that we would be able to correct and improve our doctrines as far as conducting our operations is concerned.”

Alano said while the members of the Marine Force Reconnaissance Battalion who encountered the Abu Sayyaf terrorists were just on a test mission, they were all experienced soldiers who had been assigned to field units.

He said the deployment was part of their training to improve their skills as members of the elite team of the Marines.

“It is part of the training and skills requirement that we are trying to develop for all sailors and Marines. They must have the necessary skills in order to do what they are supposed to be doing,” Alano said.

The Navy chief the two teams of the Marine recon unit were actually sent to perform route security operations in Barangay Tugas in Patikul, Sulu, when a firefight broke out in a “meeting-encounter” with the local terrorists.

“They were actually doing a route security preparing for the deployment of other follow-on forces. The incident happened actually within or near the vicinity of their main maneuvering base,” Alano said.

“Part of the standard procedures before you have a main body moving out to any destination maneuver (is to) make sure that the area is cleared. Now this forms part of the doctrines that we do as far as the conduct of operations is concerned.”

Despite the loss, Bautista said the morale of the AFP organization remained high.

“This is an incident … will not deter our people from performing their mandate of protecting the people and the state … and the national territory,” he said.

“This is what we have trained for as soldiers and this mandate we will continue to perform regardless of the risk that we face as soldiers in doing that. And that is all part of our training, of our conviction as members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.”