SAF survivor evaded rebels for 11 hours

MANILA, Philippines - He dove into the river as his comrades lay dead or dying, hiding behind water lilies and vegetation to evade Muslim guerrillas for 11 hours.

Police Officer 2 Christopher Lalan recounted how he survived the furious gun battle between his group, the 55th Special Action Company (SAC) of the Philippine National Police Special Action Force (PNP-SAF), and guerrillas belonging to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in Barangay Tukanalipao, Mamasapano, Maguindanao on Jan. 25.

His team, composed of 36 members, was to serve as blocking and support force to the 84th Seaborne, the group assigned to take down suspected Malaysian bomb maker Zulkifli bir Hir, alias Marwan, and at least two other wanted terrorists.

The 84th, made up of 38 troopers, killed Marwan at about 4 a.m. of Jan. 25 but lost nine men while withdrawing when it encountered elements of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), an MILF breakaway faction. Lalan was the sole survivor of the 55th SAC.

In a sworn statement, Lalan said the gun battle between 55 SAC and MILF fighters started between 5:30 and 6 a.m.

He said at around 2 p.m., after a long exchange of gunfire, “I saw that most of my comrades were already dead and that we are out of ammo and noticed some of my comrades crawling towards an area of lesser gunshots.

“I decided to extricate myself with the hope that I may be able to survive and so I asked permission from by senior officer that I would take my chance. So he let me go,” he said.

He said he escaped by diving into the now iconic river in Tukanalipao, surfacing every now and then to check on the presence of Muslim rebels and to find a safe way out.

At one point, he recalled that he exchanged fire with four armed men, killing two of them with his M4 assault rifle.

“The two (remaining) armed men searched for me and strafed the riverside, but fortunately I was not hit,” he said.

At another point, he said he pretended to be dead.

Lalan said he hid himself from other armed groups, scared away other men with his rifle, which by this time had no more ammo, and Glock pistol, and ran in circles in the cornfield and a sprinkling of huts trying to find his way out before finding a team of Army soldiers who turned him over to his SAF colleagues.

His timeline jibes with the “chronology of significant events on 26 January 2015 (Monday)” submitted by the military to PNP investigators.

According to the military’s account, soldiers found one “missing in action” SAF trooper at 2:10 p.m. that day with his assault rifle and turned him over to other SAF teams.

“Said SAF personnel kicked his fellow SAF from 46SAC for not reinforcing them,” it said.

Lalan said his team failed to reach their assigned waypoint or position, from where they could support the assault force.

“We were so slow. The tail portion of our group could not catch up with us in the front because they have with them heavy ammunition and the 90RR (recoilless rifle). They were always asking for a halt.”

He said he was the navigator of the first blocking unit led by Senior Inspector John Garry Eraña.

He said they conducted preparation for the mission in their base in Zamboanga City for one week, doing rehearsals, train modeling, simulation exercises, and physical training.

They left base on the night of Jan. 22. If SAF received ample funding from the United States or from Malacañang, as some quarters have speculated, it did not show in the way the blocking force traveled from Zamboanga City to Maguindanao. Their transportation – an old, rented Elf truck – broke down twice.

Lalan said they had a final briefing and equipment check at about 9 p.m. of Jan. 24 before going to their assigned vehicle drop-off point, from where they were to walk toward the designated waypoint.

Based on text messages sent and received by relieved SAF chief Director Getulio Napeñas, he informed high-ranking military officers in Maguindanao led by Maj. Gen. Edmundo Pangilinan, commander of the 6th Infantry Division, of the operation to take down Marwan and Usman as early as 5:09 a.m. on Jan. 25.

He has blamed his own men, the military and the government-MILF ceasefire committee for the high death toll his teams suffered.

He said reinforcement from the military came late.

Military officials have claimed that they had provided the requested support. They fired blank artillery rounds at about 6 p.m., scaring away Moro fighters and enabling soldiers and members of the SAF support teams to extricate the survivors in the assault team.

By this time, 35 members of 55 SAC to which Lalan belonged had already died.