2 soldiers dead, 12 hurt in Basilan ambush

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Gunmen attacked on Wednesday afternoon, January 22, a team of soldiers out on humanitarian mission in Sumisip town in Basilan, killing two of them and hurting 12 others, now in a hospital.

Brig. Gen. Alvin Luzon, commander of the Army’s 101st Infantry Brigade, and the director of the Bangsamoro regional police, Brig. Gen. Romeo Juan Macapaz, separately confirmed on Thursday, January 23, that the group that perpetrated the ambush also deliberately set on fire the KM 450 vehicle of the soldiers as they repositioned a few meters away amid their heavy exchanges of gunfire.

Luzon said the team from the 32nd Infantry Battalion that members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front ambushed were to help connect representatives of the United Nations Development Programme to villagers in Barangay Upper Cabengbeng and other areas in Sumisip for potential anti-poverty projects in the area.

The gunmen who attacked the soldiers were positioned along a stretch of the highway in Barangay Upper Cabengbeng. 

Luzon had urged the MILF leadership to censure the front members responsible for the atrocity.

Local officials said two of the ambushers, Najal Garib Buena and Oman Hajal Jalis, are known in Sumisip for their involvement in criminal activities.

“We are hoping for the front’s prompt action on this incident,” Luzon said, referring to the MILF.

The MILF has two peace compacts with the national government, the 2012 Framework Agreement on Bangsamoro and, subsequently, the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro that paved the way for the replacement in 2019 of the then 27-year Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao with a more empowered Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Anwar Alamada, chairman of the MILF’s ad-hoc ceasefire monitoring group that has a counterpart in the government, told reporters in Cotabato City on Thursday morning that the deadly encounter could have been avoided had officials of the 32nd IB coordinated with their commanders in Basilan their supposedly non-tactical mission in Barangay Upper Cabengbeng.

“There was no prior coordination at all. There are protocols on that jointly established by the MILF and the national government, set to forestall encounters like that, ” he said.

Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Carlito Galvez Jr. Basilan Gov. Hadjiman Salliman and the congressional representative in the province, Mujiv Hataman, had separately condemned the bloody incident in Barangay Upper Cabengbeng, which triggered panic among local residents.