WOUNDED Army Scout Rangers are treated inside Camp Navarro General Hospital at Western Mindanao Command headquarters. JULIE ALIPALA/INQUIRER MINDANAO
ZAMBOANGA CITY—Draped with a Philippine flag, a white coffin was loaded into a Nomad plane bound for Tambler Airport in General Santos City early Sunday morning.
Hours later, another coffin was placed inside another aircraft bound for Laguindingan Airport in Cagayan de Oro City.
Some personnel of the Philippine Air Force and top officials of the Western Mindanao Command sent off the bodies of Privates First Class Joey Blanche of Tacurong City, Sultan Kudarat province, and Gabby Aches of Misamis Oriental province in simple military funeral rites at Edwin Andrews Air Base here.
Blanche and Aches were among the five soldiers killed in an encounter with Abu Sayyaf bandits in Sulu province on Friday.
Gen. Rustico Guerrero, chief of the Western Mindanao Command, said the bodies of the three other fallen soldiers—Privates First Class Alison Claro of Gamu town, Isabela province; Samuel Taluyan of Kalinga province; and Albert Villaluna of Luban town, Occidental Mindoro province— would be flown to Manila via a C-130 military cargo aircraft on Monday.
Guerrero refused to comment when asked about the reported beheading of one of the soldiers, as earlier confirmed by Col. Allan Arrojado of the Joint Task Group Sulu.
Arrojado, in a separate interview, said his men did not die in vain.
“They fought hard. Our men fought hard for over five hours and we were able to inflict heavy casualties on the Abu Sayyaf fighters,” he said.
At least 28 other soldiers were wounded in the clash. Arrojado said 10 bandits were killed while 30 others were wounded in the five-hour fighting.
Guerrero, who visited Sulu on Saturday, told reporters that the government troops were engaged in “a very close and intense firefight, just about 10 to 20 meters from the enemies.”
He denied that the troops were ambushed.
“That was a deliberate AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) operation,” he said.
Although it was unusual for the bandits to engage the military in a long encounter, Guerrero said it could be that “they are protecting somebody at the back.”
“And we know they are protecting kidnap victims. What our troops hit then were the outer layer groups of (Abu Sayyaf leader) Radulan Sahiro,” he said. The clash involved at least 300 Abu Sayyaf members. The military said Sahiron’s group merged with five other sub-groups.
Arrojado said that despite the casualties, “more troops were sent to block the escape routes of the bandits.”
“We will continuously pursue the bandits in their jungle hideouts,” he said. Julie S. Alipala, Inquirer Mindanao