SMOKE billows from areas in Zamboanga City occupied by followers of Nur Misuari and which were under siege by government forces. EDWIN BACASMAS
ZAMBOANGA CITY—Residents whose villages lay under siege and were razed during clashes between followers of Moro leader Nur Misuari and government soldiers raised fears that some of their missing relatives, taken hostage during the fighting, had been buried along with slain Misuari followers in a mass grave.
Jodex Francisco, an embalmer in a funeral parlor here, said several families came to him “looking for brothers, fathers, cousins.”
Of at least 10 families that came to him, only three found their missing relatives, according to Francisco.
“One family is still very persistent. I guess the others have already resigned from searching and accepted fate,” he added.
One of the families that have not given up hope is the Ramirezes, who have been looking for Wilfredo Ramirez, 67.
Wilfredo, his daughter, Maricel, and his grandsons, Daniel and Earl, were taken hostage by Misuari’s followers on Sept. 9. They either escaped or were freed separately.
Fredilyn Ramirez, father of the two boys, said his father was killed by the Moro National Liberation Front forces.
“My son witnessed how my father was killed,” Fredilyn said, adding the old man was repeatedly hacked with a bolo and thrown into a pile of garbage near the KGK Building in Barangay Santa Catalina.
Capt. Arvin Llenaresas, commander of the 7th Scout Ranger Company, admitted seeing an old man slumped near the KBK Building.
But when Fredilyn and his sons went to the funeral parlor, they could not locate the body of Wilfredo.
“We’ve opened all the body bags but we did not find my father,” he said.
Francisco said that based on the description provided by the Ramirezes, Wilfredo’s was among the 157 bodies buried in a mass grave in the village of Taluksangay.
Fredilyn said his family had moved to Margosatubig town in Zamboanga del Sur after his sons showed signs of trauma.
“All of them are terrified to see soldiers. I am left here to look for my father,” Fredilyn said.
Fredilyn also frequents the office of Mayor Maria Isabelle Climaco-Salazar.
“But no one seems to care,” Fredilyn said.
At the police’s crime laboratory, Fredilyn said he was told they were busy.
“They even scolded me [because] I was the only one pursuing the idea that my father was among those buried in the mass grave. They claimed all those buried there were rebel fighters,” he said.
Jerry Uy, an examiner at the Philippine National Police’s crime laboratory, said the Ramirezes provided them with SSS (Social Security System) and voter’s identification cards.
“Processing is not easy if we are dealing with more than a hundred cadavers and what details we got from the IDs were all biometrics,” Uy explained.
Fredilyn said the option of DNA testing would be very expensive. Julie S. Alipala, Inquirer Mindanao