No augmentation of police, military personnel in Basilan

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — The police and military are together in full control of the situation in Basilan and there is no need to bring in additional troops following last week’s two ambush incidents in the province, officials announced on Sunday, October 11.

Army Major Gen. Jose Vladimir Cagara, acting commander of the military’s Western Mindanao Command based in Zamboanga City, and senior officials of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, had separately told reporters that they have enough personnel in Basilan now guarding tightly against any repeat of the two atrocities.

A soldier, Cpl. Elmer Lagmay of the Army’s 45th Infantry Battalion, was killed while six of his companions and a 10-year-old ethnic Yakan boy and his father were wounded when gunmen fired assault rifles and 40-millimeter grenade projectiles at their vehicles on Thursday night at Barangay Sabong in Lamitan City.

The incident was preceded by the ambush on Monday morning of a convoy of soldiers from the same unit in nearby Barangay Badjah in Tipo-Tipo town that left 13 military servicemen, one of them a member of the Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Unit, wounded.

Cagara told reporters on Sunday that the WestMinCom and the Army’s 1101st Infantry Brigade, which has battalions in different towns in Basilan, and units of PRO-BAR are jointly guarding the entire province extensively now.

He said Basilan Gov. Mujiv Hataman and his constituent-local executives in Basilan’s 11 towns and two cities, Lamitan and Isabela, are helping Army intelligence officials and investigators from PRO-BAR’s Basilan Provincial Police Office locate the group behind both attacks that caused tension among residents in the province.

“The support of local executives and the traditional Yakan, Tausug and Sama community leaders in Basilan to the efforts of the military and police to secure the entire province after both incidents is already enough,” Cagara said.

Police Brig. Christopher Abecia, director of PRO-BAR, said Hataman and members of the multi-sector Basilan Provincial Peace and Order Council, which he leads as governor, are helping police units in the province validate assertions by residents in Lamitan City and Tipo-Tipo that the separate attacks on convoys of soldiers in Barangays Badja and Sabong involved a group led by the long-wanted Saddam Siddick.

Siddick, a criminal gang leader wanted for high-profile criminal cases pending in different courts, is also a known large-scale shabu and marijuana trafficker.

Local executives said Siddick also forcibly collects “protection money” from Muslim and Christian traders and owners of passenger vehicles operating in areas where he and his followers roam around.