Tagaligtas: A salute to the saviors

MANILA, Philippines - One was an expectant father. He had been practicing and was seen more than once with arms folded, body swaying, lulling an imaginary child to sleep. He was certain his child would carry on his looks.

Another was a son who had the honor of serving both his family and the nation. He financed his younger brother’s course in Criminology; his younger brother wanted to follow in his footsteps. Another brother has already done so, for he now wears the green and ochre fatigue of the Armed Forces.

One man left his family with an uncertain future: his wife is unemployed and dependent on his support for the family; his two-year-old daughter will have to grow up without a father.

These are some of the stories behind the 44 lives lost in the so-called “misencounter” in the remote town of Mamasapano in Maguindanao province that Sunday in January. The police elite force had a covert operation to serve warrants of arrest on Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan, and Basit Usman – both linked to terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) and are listed among the world’s most wanted terrorists.

Sacrifices had to be made in the line of duty. But sacrifices had already been made many years before they even wore the black berets that symbolize the excellence of skill and virtue required of members of the Philippine National Police Special Action Force (SAF).

Civilians can apply directly to the SAF, but only those aged 21 to 29 could be admitted. If an applicant turns 30 on the day of the oath-taking – the day when orientation and training starts – his application automatically becomes invalidated.

For male applicants, the minimum height requirement is 5 feet 4 inches; for females, 5 feet 2 inches.

Aside from documentary requirements – birth certificate, some clearances and medical certificates and a college diploma – which will all be screened meticulously, SAF applicants will have to go through a rigorous agility test.

Within a particular time limit, a hundred push-ups, a dozen pull-ups and swimming a mile are just some of the physical fitness tests that comprise part of the application process, a former SAF officer who requested anonymity tells STARweek.

He said the age limit is necessary to ensure that those who would be joining the SAF are strong enough to endure the grueling demands of the training and, eventually, the job.

Only about ten percent of the total number of applicants make the cut.

The source clarified that there are women in the SAF, but they make up less than 10 percent – at least up to two years ago when he was still part of the police’s elite force.

He joined the SAF more than a decade ago, not intentionally, for he was eyeing a job at the Narcotics Group of the PNP.

Due to budgetary constraints, the police division no longer accepted applicants and forwarded their files to the SAF. That was when he received a call.

The Narcotics Group has since been dissolved and replaced by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), under the Office of the President.

Once the applicant is accepted and the oath-taking has taken place, there is no changing of minds for the lionhearted.

The SAF applicants undergo an orientation program for at least six months, during which they are taught basic theories and policies.

For the first three months, applicants stay together in one camp – adjusting to the new environment which they have to call home, getting themselves comfortable with the company of their comrades who they would soon consider family and, perhaps, occasionally ruminating about the practicality of their life choices.

During this period, they become familiar with the ways of the SAF commando. They learn to depend on one another, sticking to an eight-man team, the basic unit of the SAF. They learn discipline and obedience, as well as strategies on how to not get caught by instructors as they gallivant around the camp.

Once, the source recalls, he had to do a headstand with tansan (bottle caps) on the floor – a disciplinary sanction they call tusok-ulo – because his buddy went missing. “I had to stay in that position until he showed up.”

The following months, SAF applicants stay in an academy together with other new recruits of the police force, for the Public Safety Basic Recruit Course, where they would study basic police operational procedures and relevant laws and policies.

“And that’s just the orientation,” the source points out.

Then comes the more rigorous and extensive training, classified under four courses whose symbols make up the SAF insignia: the commando course, depicted by the tabak or jungle knife; the airborne course, portrayed by wings; the urban counter-revolutionary warfare course (UCRWC) also known as Sureshock, crosshair; and the scuba course, water.

The commando training course, taken up for about four months, includes internal security operations, waterborne rescue, police intervention, barangay module, operational testing and field training exercise.

The training program is no simple obstacle or endurance course, the source says, as he almost died in one air-to-ground operation seminar (AGOS) activity.

“We would alight one by one from a plane to the open waters as part of our training in combat swimming. Once submerged, SAF men on the ground would deliberately try to drown you. The challenge is to get past them,” he relates. “I remember I had to kick my companion in the balls just to save myself.”

He was rushed to a hospital in Ternate, Cavite for drowning. The incident, which could have ended his life, turned out to be a blessing as this was where and how he met his wife.

“It shouldn’t have been called ‘seminar,’” he says, referring to AGOS. “I almost died, how can that be a seminar?”

The SAF recruits are also trained in close-quarter battle under the Sureshock course, designed to teach them combat skills such as weapon-handling, combat life-saving, map-reading and navigation, and terrain analysis.

“Conducted almost always amid smoke, darkness and deadly fumes while fully outfitted and armed, a team or teams of SAF troopers clear a building systematically and methodically. This approach can be either covert or done in absolute silence where commands are given through hand signals, or it could be dynamic, as in assault conducted in the midst of a raging firefight,” the course description reads.

The idea is to give the SAF troopers combat capability in both rural and urban areas, specializing in any military and police operation, so they can strike in cases of emergency and crisis at anytime, even at a moment’s notice.

After almost a year of training, the SAF recruits would be deployed for the final part of their basic training course: the test mission.

Here, they look death in the eye, as they fight real enemies in the field. Only after a successful test mission will the class of SAF recruits graduate from the training course.

Only then will they have transformed from law enforcers to “modern-day warriors.” And only then will they get to wear the much coveted black beret.

The SAF was created in the early 1980s, then under the Philippine Constabulary, as response to the growing insurgency. The first batch of SAF troopers was composed of only 149 operatives.

They were formed initially to battle guerillas, terrorists and organized crime groups, but now have expanded their duties to attending to natural calamities and catastrophes.

The SAF troopers are in the business of managing violence, while ensuring that human rights and the rule of law are not violated.

Their one-word mission: Tagapagligtas. Saviors – to be protectors of the people and defenders of democracy.

Upon graduation, SAF recruits sign a five-year contract with the elite force. But their tour of duty normally extends up to their retirement.

A source tells STARweek that, given the physical demands and emotional strain they have to endure, many SAF commandos request transfer to a different division in the police force.

Three hours, he shares, was the longest period he had stayed home with his family.

However, moving out is as hard, perhaps even more difficult than getting in.

“There is what we call a ‘shoot order,’” he says. “But this is different from the ‘shoot-at-sight’ or ‘shoot-to-kill’ orders you might have in mind.”

There are requests to be made and papers to sign. All credentials will be reviewed by the Board before a commando is given the clearance and consent to leave the troops. This could take years, he says.

“Times are when you would wonder where your paper is. For all you know, members of the Board might have used your documents as scratch paper,” he quips.

But, if by some fortuitous set of circumctances one finds himself free to leave the elite force, “that’s a ‘shoot’,” the source says, “you know, like in basketball.”

The source explains he has a wife and a seven-year-old daughter, who grew up without a father to hug most nights. He says he decided to leave the elite force after one fateful incident in Sulu in 2012 that led to the death of his close friend.

He refuses to share details, as much about the SAF is classified, but tells STARweek that as bombs hovered above them one day, he called his wife and told her, “Kapag hindi ako aalis dito baka hindi mo na ako makitang buhay (If I don’t get out of here, you might not see me alive).”

Given that their training is much more comprehensive and extensive than that of their counterparts even in the military, the SAF is considered the elite force, the source says with obvious pride.

It is but fitting, he continues, because we are also trained by United States and British forces. Not even members of the local police would dare ask to be transferred to the SAF, he says.

“If you would have the opportunity to know anyone from SAF personally, you would realize that, truly, these men are superior,” he says.

It is also for this reason that he is saddened by criticisms against his comrades who conducted the operation on Jan. 25 to serve the warrants of arrest against terrorists Marwan and Usman.

Forty-four commandos died, and officials have been pointing their fingers at one another. Even President Aquino, who admitted he was privy to details of the operation, said the tragedy happened because the SAF failed to coordinate with the military and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) amid a ceasefire agreement.

“It must be known that with or without coordination, any operation of the SAF pushes through,” the source points out. “Usually, as for covert missions like the one in Mamasapano, coordination happens after the operations.”

The SAF troopers are properly – perhaps even more than adequately – trained, equipped and prepared for such operations, he stresses, in response to some claims that the botched operation was a “mission impossible” because the deployed officers, not native to the Maguindanao province, were not familiar with the terrain and that those in the mission were young and inexperienced.

While in mourning with the rest of the nation for the brutality of the killing amid an already fragile peace in the southern Philippine region, the source heaves a sigh of personal relief.

“Had I not been able to transfer from the SAF, I would probably be among them,” he muses.

But there is nothing to be done now. Lives were lost. Sacrifices had to be made in the line of duty.