by Alex Roldan
The deadly encounter last week in Sitio Kurelem, Tipo-tipo, Basilan between the Abu Sayaff bandits and soldiers of the Armed Forces of the Philippines brought in our midst more questions than answers of who these people are.
The efforts to eradicate or at least weaken this group is clearly failing, and that the latest encounter is a proof and that they become more daring instead in their encounters with the country’s armed forces. I don’t want to glorify this group, as they are plain bandits to me. Their high profile status was achieved through kidnappings and the presence of terrorists who seek haven in their company. But accounts from those who survived in the latest encounter tell about a group who has combat capability comparable to our soldiers. I know, that some would disagree with this remark, but the account of those who survived, overturned the earlier description that the group is generally composed of ordinary criminals who made kidnapping and other criminal activity as their livelihood. In fact, accounts by kidnap victims never gave a hint that these criminals are also capable of engaging the military in a larger scale.
A soldier interviewed by the media after the incident described the armed encounter as “near to hand combat.” A running firefight rage the whole day that another soldier survivor described it as the “most difficult encounter he ever experienced.” They have no time to rest, eat or even drink. They thought at first that the fight will only last for a few minutes or at most a couple of hours, but never they expect a dawn to night fighting. At the day’s end, the body count showed 22 soldiers and 21 bandits killed, a number of soldiers and undetermined number of bandits was wounded.
It just makes me wonder, the bandits were able to withstand and engaged the assault from combat tested elite members of scout rangers, the light armored force of the marines and the police. In short, they gave our soldiers an extremely good fight!
Without question, the Abu Sayaff were able to show that their weapons are not only good for photo ops, but as they have advanced combat capability as well. But what bothers me most, is that, the fight could not have lasted the whole day without enough ammunition!
My soldier friend told me that a day of close combat gun battle requires a lot of nerve, stamina, and most of all, lots of ammunition. A soldier tends to lose courage to fight if he finds that he is low on ammunition especially in situations where at times you see your enemies just yards away from you. But it seems that the bandits are more than ready to bring hell to the soldiers – of course with some help of other armed groups. But still, it is a feat to withstand a whole day of fighting combat-tested troops.
But come to think of it. The Abu Sayaff could not have improved their skills in combat without any aid. They must have received ample training, financial and logistical support from their superiors, who dwelt among us! We were not born yesterday to believe that the bandits with the aid of the terrorist Jemaa Islamiya could improve their strength by themselves in the jungles. Their handlers who dwelt among us are the bandits’ real strength. They supply the information, money, weapons and ammunition.
I am more than a hundred percent sure that the military and the government knows this. But it still amazes me every time the government decides to send soldiers to obliterate the Abu Sayaff. We relied so much to our troops to do the cleaning job, when the best thing to do is to cut the bandit’s connection from its real force.
All is needed is simple police work to pin-down these people, and for sure, a lot of political will is needed to bring them to justice.
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