Family gets taunts from dead SAF commando’s phone

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya—The family of PO1 Oliebeth Viernes has received threatening calls from his mobile phone, which remains missing since he was killed in the Jan. 25 encounter between Moro rebels and Special Action Force (SAF) commandos in Mamasapano in Maguindanao province.

Virgie Carodan-Viernes told the Inquirer on Wednesday that her mother-in-law had received at least three calls from her husband’s phone, with the caller taunting his family, relatives and friends to arrest them.

“Sige, punta kayo dito, nag-aabang kami. Marami kami dito (Come here if you want, we are waiting for you. There are many of us here),” Viernes quoted the caller, a man, as saying.

Her husband, a native of Tuguegarao City in Cagayan province, was among the 44 SAF commandos killed in Mamasapano.

Fighters of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. JEOFFREY MAITEM/INQUIRER MINDANAO FILE PHOTO

Viernes’ body was retrieved after the clash, but many of his personal belongings were missing, including his wallet, which contained ATM and identification cards, and his mobile phone, Virgie said.

She said the calls were made to Viernes’ mother by men who did not identify themselves. Viernes’ friend, a soldier, took one of these calls and engaged the caller in a three-minute talk in Filipino, Virgie said.

The soldier, whom Virgie did not identify for security reasons, asked the caller a series of questions, including his identity and an explanation on why he had Viernes’ phone.

“It soon turned into a heated exchange, with our friend warning the caller that they will hunt down my husband’s killers, to which the caller supposedly replied, ‘Then come here, we are waiting for you,’” Virgie said.

In a subsequent call, Virgie said she and other family members just heard a group of men bantering and laughing and speaking in a language they could not understand.

“They sounded like they were just trying to provoke us,” she said.

It was the same phone that Viernes used in his last calls to his wife—one on the afternoon of Jan. 24, just minutes before his deployment from the 55th Special Action Company base in Zamboanga City.

It was like any other call he would make to update his wife of his whereabouts, Virgie said. Viernes asked how she and their children were and told her to always take good care of them.

On the night of Jan. 25, Virgie said she received what would be her husband’s last call. “Nandito na kami sa Maguindanao. ‘Di namin kabisado ‘tong lugar (We are now here in Maguindanao. We are not familiar with this place),” Virgie quoted her husband as telling her.

In Cotabato City, Gov. Mujiv Hataman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) on Wednesday challenged the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to hand over the firearms, mobile phones and other personal belongings of the slain commandos “to improve confidence in the peace process.”

“If I had my way, the firearms and other things taken from the SAF should be turned over to the government,” Hataman told reporters.

For the items taken by Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) gunmen, Hataman said the group, founded by Ameril Umra Kato, could not be pressured into handing them over.

“It is out of the question,”he said, amid the BIFF admission its fighters got 10 firearms from the policemen.

But Hataman said the MILF was different from the BIFF, pointing out that the MILF was engaged in a peace process with the government. “There should be some confidence rebuilding because it was destroyed by the bloody incident,” he said.–With reports from Edwin Fernandez, Nash Maulana, Jeoffrey Maitem and Julie S. Alipala, Inquirer Mindanao

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