ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines — Hours before setting off for a road security duty, 25-year-old Private First Class Mark Anthony Singson of the 64th Infantry Battalion called his aunt in Isabela City, Basilan.
“He told me that he wanted to have an R&R (rest and recreation) this November 15, and he reminded me to look for him a good text mate, preferably a teacher,” Honeylane Singson said.
At 8 a.m. Sunday, Singson recalled, “we heard and saw helicopters flying by.”
At lunchtime, Singson received word that her nephew was dead.
“Our phone conversation was happy. Then I received news that he is already dead,” she told the Philippine Daily Inquirer in an interview.
The young Singson was among the six soldiers who were killed in an encounter with Abu Sayyaf bandits. The soldiers were providing security to a road project in Sumisip town.
The bodies of the slain soldiers–2nd Lt. June Galima Corpuz, Sgt. Tranquilino Germo, Privates First Class Rolando Entera, Singson, Raffy Canuto and Freddie Pandoy — were brought to the mortuary inside the Naval Command Headquarters here for an overnight vigil before they are flown to their respective provinces. Most of them are from North Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat.
But Rear Admiral Reynaldo Yoma, commander of Naval Forces Western Mindanao, said no ambush happened in the village of Libug in Sumisip on Sunday.
“They were conducting routine patrol when they chanced upon the armed men. Naunahan sila (The armed men shot them first),” Yoma told reporters in an interview.
The military here is planning to give honors to the fallen soldiers, most of them still in their 20s.
“Definitely, they will be given appropriate awards. Corpuz is a new graduate, about four months old in that area. I believe he was the one who volunteered to join. He was really eager to join the group and it was just unfortunate na naunahan sila (that the enemy shot them first),” Yoma said.
Yoma said he believed the attack, allegedly perpetrated by a group led by Radzmil Jannatul, was meant to pressure the military to ease up its operations in Sulu.
Yoma said a battalion size of the Philippine Marines was dispatched to Basilan to provide security to road projects.
“It’s a flagship project in Basilan. It will really matter if it’s completed so that the flow of goods and people will be smooth,” Yoma said.
RELATED STORIES
Fallen soldiers in Basilan identified
6 soldiers killed in clash with Abu Sayyaf in Basilan