3 Army intelligence agents killed in Basilan ambush

COTABATO CITY— Gunmen killed three Army intelligence agents in an ambush in Barangay Baimbing in Lamitan City, Basilan on Monday, December 23.

Officials of the Basilan Provincial Police Office and Brig. Gen. Romeo Juan Macapaz, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, separately told reporters on Tuesday, December 24, that the three Army personnel, Sgt. Jhonny Lapinig, Sgt. Joecel Catedral and Pvt. Archie Cebuaños, died from multiple gunshot wounds sustained in the attack.

Lapinig, Catedral and Cebuaños were riding a van on their way to a far-flung area in Barangay Baimbing, when men armed with assault rifles, positioned along the route, opened fire, killing all three of them instantly.

The Lamitan City Police Station, in a report to PRO-BAR's headquarters in Camp SK Pendatun in Maguindanao del Norte, said the three soldiers were tasked to reach out to residents in interior areas in Barangay Baimbing who had signified intention to surrender unlicensed assault rifles to the 101st Infantry Brigade and Gov. Hadjiman Salliman in support of the Small Arms and Light Weapons Program in Basilan.

Few remaining violent extremists in the province are opposed to the disarmament program that has, so far, resulted in the collection in the past six months of more than 500 firearms and grenade launchers, voluntarily turned over by owners through the intercession of Brig. Gen. Alvin Luzon, commander of the Army's 101st Infantry Brigade and Salliman and his subordinate mayors.

The SALW Program of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity, complementing the disarmament agenda of Malacañang’s Mindanao peace process, is being implemented in Basilan by Salliman and officials of the 101st Infantry Brigade.

Macapaz said police investigators in Lamitan City and local executives are together trying to put a closure to the atrocity that resulted in the death of the three soldiers who belonged to the 101st Infantry Brigade.