The apparent act of piracy came as the military received orders to crush the Abu Sayyaf and Maute terrorist groups in six to 12 months to put an end to kidnappings and bomb attacks in Mindanao once and for all.
Cmdr. Armand Balilo, spokesperson for the Coast Guard, said a fishing boat with a 15-man crew on board was operating off Laud on Siromon Island near the peninsula on Monday night when five armed men on a speedboat attacked them.
“The attackers opened fire at the fishermen,” Balilo said.
He said eight were killed and five jumped into the water and swam to a nearby island. Two others who remained on the boat were unharmed, he added.
Pirate attack
“We consider this a piracy attack. If these were Islamist militants, [the fishermen] would have been taken captive and held for ransom,” Balilo said.
He said the attackers fled in the darkness and two Coast Guard vessels were sent to the area to search for them.
Chief Insp. Chester Natividad, commander of the Sangali police station, gave a different version of the attack.
He said the gunmen boarded the fishing boat, hogtied the fishermen, and sprayed them with bullets. Two of the slain fishermen were minors, he said.
Chief Insp. Helen Galvez, spokesperson for the Zamboanga City Police Office, said seven fishermen survived the attack by jumping into the water as the gunmen attacked the fishing boat at 8 p.m.
Local authorities learned about the incident from two of the fishermen—Kevin Banahan and Nomar Sakandal—who swam to Sangali and reported the attack to village officials.
Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla, spokesperson for the Armed Forces of the Philippines, said the authorities were investigating the incident, including reports of a clan feud in Dita and Curuan villages in Zamboanga City that could be a reason for the attack.
Container ship attacked
Last week, armed men believed to be Abu Sayyaf bandits attacked a container ship in waters off Sibago Island in Basilan province and tried to kidnap the crew.
Maj. Filemon Tan Jr., spokesperson for the military’s Western Mindanao Command, said the MV Ocean Kingdom was sailing toward Davao City when it was attacked by gunmen who came in two speedboats.
Tan said the container ship’s crew repulsed the attack.
In December last year, armed men also attacked a fishing boat in the Celebes Sea and snatched the captain and his crew.
The victims—boat captain Noel Besconde, marine diesel mechanic Reyjim Rocabo and crew members Roy Ramos and Roel Liones, all residents of Tukuran, Zamboanga del Sur province—have not been found yet.
On Monday, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said the military had been ordered to end threats from the Abu Sayyaf and Maute terrorist groups in six to 12 months, with more troops to be poured into war-torn Mindanao amid a ceasefire agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
“That is our target,” Lorenzana told reporters. “We will just have to do all we can, combining military operations and developmental projects to end what they are doing,” he said. —WITH REPORTS FROM CYNTHIA D. BALANA IN MANILA