3 tagged in SAF massacre

A Philippine National Police Special Action Force commando stands near a tarpaulin poster calling for justice to 44 commandos killed in a clash with Muslim rebels following a two-day wake Saturday, Jan. 31, 2015 at Camp Bagong Diwa at suburban Taguig city, south of Manila, Philippines. Southeast Asia’s top terrorist suspect has evaded capture and survived several military assaults in the southern Philippines, where police now await DNA results to confirm if he is the man killed in the Jan. 25 raid that left 44 police commandos dead. AP

COTABATO CITY—In the search for answers, and perpetrators, in the treacherous slaughter of 44 members of the Philippine National Police-Special Action Force (PNP-SAF), three names of Muslim rebel leaders stand out—Zacaria Goma, Kagi Karialan and Waid Tundok.

Goma heads the 105th Base Command of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). Karialan belongs to the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), an MILF splinter group. Tundok is a ground commander of the MILF’s 118th Base Command.

Goma had not issued a categorical denial of his involvement in the clash that led to the massacre of the SAF men.

In a phone interview on Wednesday, Goma told reporters he could not give a detailed account of what happened because the MILF central committee had issued orders that all queries about the massacre would be addressed only by the central committee.

“It’s better for us to listen to what the MILF (central committee, chaired by Ebrahim Murad) has to say because that is the truth,” he told the Inquirer in an intriguing text message on Wednesday.

Goma became 105th Base Command chief after his superior, Ameril Umra Kato, broke away from the MILF to form his own armed command, the BIFF.

Karialan’s involvement in the massacre was not surprising to many sources. They said the rebels who fought another group of SAF commandos that was serving as a blocking force against a group of rebels pursuing the main SAF group that got Marwan, belonged to the group headed by Karialan.

The names of Goma, Karialan and Tundok have emerged as authorities—and the relatives of the SAF commandos killed on Jan. 25 while on a mission to arrest the Malaysian bomb maker Marwan—demand why the troopers suffered what acting PNP Deputy Director General Leonardo Espina described as an “overkill.”

Not first time

It is not the first time that Goma and Karialan, and the groups that they head, have been accused of attacking government forces in violation of a ceasefire agreement between MILF and the government.

On Dec. 24 last year, Goma’s group, combined with a BIFF force, stormed the town of Rajah Buayan in Maguindanao, where the Army’s 45th Infantry Battalion was securing a highway concreting project.

The combined MILF-BIFF force, led by Goma and Karialan, engaged soldiers in a nightlong gun battle, sending hundreds of civilians, many of them women, fleeing.

The reasons for the gun battle were known to residents. They said that Karialan had accused an Army unit of raiding his house at Kabalukan Hills in Mamasapano, the town in Maguindanao province where the massacre of the 44 SAF commandos took place last Sunday.

Following the Dec. 24 raid, Rajah Buayan Mayor Zamzamin Ampatuan said he had received a report that Karialan had warned that he would attack Rajah Buayan in retaliation against the 45th Infantry Battalion stationed there.

A Medal of Bravery, the fourth highest police award of the Philippine National Police, is placed on the coffin of Police Officer 3 Virgel S. Villanueva, one of 44 elite commandos killed in a clash with Muslim rebels, during its final wake Saturday, Jan. 31, 2015 at Camp Bagong Diwa at suburban Taguig city, south of Manila, Philippines. AP

Where SAF were headed

The Kabalukan Hills has been the site of several recent raids by government forces, whose objectives remained unclear to local authorities and residents.

But based on the location where the bodies of the slain police commandos were found after the Jan. 25 fighting in Sitio Inugog in the village of Pidsandawan, it is possible that the SAF men were headed for Kabalukan Hills in pursuit of their Malaysian quarry.

The path to the Kabalukan Hills is swampy and goes through some cornfields.

It was in Sitio Inugog that the smaller group of SAF commandos clashed with MILF forces under the command of Goma.

Goma has not categorically denied his involvement in the fighting that resulted in the death of the 44 SAF commandos.

Highly unlikely

There were reports that another MILF leader, Waid Tundok, was also involved in the fighting. But the sources said Tundok’s involvement was highly unlikely.

The sources said Goma and Tundok are at odds and could not possibly be on the same side.

Recently, a small armed group of Goma’s MILF 105th Base Command rescued a man being arrested for murder and arson in the town of Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao. Authorities, with the help of Tundok, had gone to the town to arrest the suspect but Goma’s group intervened, allowing the subject of the arrest warrant to flee.

Post MOA-AD rampage

Tundok himself is responsible for many atrocities when the MILF went on a rampage following the defeat at the Supreme Court of the memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain (MOA-AD), the peace agreement that the Arroyo administration had offered the MILF.

In February 2014, Tundok was arrested for murder in connection with his role in the attack on civilian villages by MILF members led by Kato after the high court ruled the MOA-AD to be unconstitutional.

Kato is said to have broken away from the MILF because of disagreements in the handling of the peace talks with the Aquino administration and is now recognized as the BIFF founder.

Upon his release after a court recalled the warrant for his arrest, the 62-year-old Tundok promised to follow the path of peace.

“We have had enough of violence as a means to resolve animosity and misunderstanding, and now is the time to overcome evil with good by supporting the government-MILF peace initiative,” Tundok said in an earlier interview.

Karialan is reported to have taken over the leadership of the BIFF after Kato suffered a stroke. This was, however, denied by BIFF spokesperson Abu Misri Mama who said Kato was still calling the shots in the supposed MILF breakaway group.

Col. Dickson Hermoso, former spokesperson of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, in an earlier interview, described Karialan, whose real name is Muhaiden Animbang, as a “hard-liner.”

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