Rizal Alih regrets long life of crime

One of the country’s most wanted men admitted yesterday his regrets for the crime he committed 17 years ago.

Former policeman Rizal Alih, who led a band of smugglers in killing a military general and several other hostages during the Camp Cawa-Cawa siege in Zamboanga City in 1989, said he is ready to accept any punishment for his misdeeds.

"Handa akong harapin ang hatol sa akin. Handa akong makulong," the 68-year-old Alih declared.

Emerging from his detention cell clad in orange-detainee T-shirt, Alih said the killing of Brig. Gen. Eduardo Batalla and several other men they had taken hostage in the incident was "purely an accident."

"Aksidente lang iyong pagkamatay, nagkagulo na eh (All hell broke loose)," he said.

Alih narrated that he had a spat with Batalla at the time when things got out of hand and sparked the three-day siege.

A former patrolman of the defunct Philippine Constabulary-Integrated National Police (PC-INP), Alih had been initially detained for questioning in the murder of Zamboanga City Mayor Cesar Climaco on Nov. 14, 1984.

He protested his transfer of detention to Manila and led a prison riot that led to the hostage-taking of Batalla, his aide Col. Romeo Abendan and 18 others at Camp Cawa-Cawa City on Jan. 5, 1989.

While detained at Camp Cawa-Cawa, Alih and his group were summoned by Batalla into his office after he refused to be transferred to Manila.

The meeting turned into a shouting match with Alih and his group later taking Batalla and Abendan hostage along with other personnel inside the general’s office.

This triggered a standoff that ended with the two military officials and 10 others getting killed while Alih managed to escape.

The former policemen even sent the military a picture of himself weeks later.

Alih managed to escape the country by boarding a motorboat for Sabah, Malaysia.

According to Alih, he simply walked out of the damaged camp building after authorities launched the assault in a bid to rescue the hostages.

"Not far from the camp, I saw a red vehicle and at gun point. I ordered the driver to bring to me to Campo Muslim," he recalled.

Alih claimed a few days later, he and his family sought refuge in Pilas island near Basilan where he rented a boat for P20,000, which brought them to Sandakan, Malaysia.

Alih said he assumed a new identity and hid in the mangroves until being arrested for the murder of a Malaysian marine during a raid on a known criminal den in Jampiras, Sabah state.

Alih was subsequently sentenced to 12 years imprisonment but only served eight years before getting deported to the Philippines.

"I am happy to be back home," he said. "My jail in Malaysia had no window. I am more comfortable here."

The former policeman could not hold back his tears in recalling Abendan, one of those killed in the hostage-taking.

"He (Abendan) was like a father to me," said Alih as he wiped the tears rolling down his cheeks.

The Malaysian police accompanied Alih last Saturday and turned him over to the custody of the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (PNP-CIDG),

Alih admitted being apprehensive at first over the possible treatment awaiting him back home while he was being prepared by Malaysian police for deportation.

He noted though his apprehensions had been erased with the good and humane accommodation extended to him by the CIDG.

"Nothing will make me afraid (now). I have surrendered my life to the relatives of those who died in the attack," Alih said.

PNP chief Director General Arturo Lomibao said Alih faces the prospect of spending his twilight years in jail for the murder of Batalla and the others who were killed in the Cawa-Cawa siege.

Among those injured in the incident was then PC 2nd Lt. Manuel Gaerlan, who led the assault team to rescue the hostages.

Gaerlan is now a police senior superintendent heading the Marikina City police.

He claimed being hit in his left wrist and losing an inch of his left index finger during the assault.

Gaerlan personally saw Alih at the detention cell at the CIDG. He said he had forgiven the former policeman for the hostage-taking incident.

Lomibao said the PNP would coordinate its efforts to serve the warrant of arrest issued by Zamboanga City Judge Pelagio Mandi on March 20, 1989.

Alih has been considered one of the most wanted persons in the country since the Zamboanga siege.

"Lesson learned?" asked Lomibao. "Crime does not pay, the long arm of the law will catch up (with) the criminals."