Palace condoles with kin of soldiers slain in Basilan

MANILA, Philippines—Malacañang on Wednesday condoled with the families of the 13 soldiers who were killed in clashes between government troops and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front  in Albarka town in Basilan Tuesday.

“We are sad when we hear this kind of reports,” deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said.

Valte said that Armed Forces Chief of Staff General Eduardo Oban has instructed the AFP Inspector General to go to Basilan “and ascertain the facts” of the incident.

“We are concentrating on getting our facts straight …,” Valte said, adding that there were conflicting details for instance on where the incident  happened.

As to whether the peace talks will be affected by the incident, Valte said she would leave it to the peace panels “to deal with this incident.”

Valte said that the government would also “recover” the 10 soldiers said to be missing.

For his part, Marvic Leonen, the government’s chief negotiator in the peace talks with the MILF, expressed sadness over the incident which had caused some casualties.

“We are certain that this is an isolated incident. This armed confrontation was not intended by both government and MILF,” he said in a statement.

Leonen also expressed confidence that the current mechanisms in monitoring violations of the ceasefire agreement were in place and working.

“With the assistance of the Armed Forces of the Philippines as well as the ceasefire committees, we hope to be able to get a clearer picture of the causes of the incident,” he said.

This as Leonen said his panel was making preparations for its meeting with the MILF panel next month.