In discussing the carnage that took place on October 18th, 2011, when nineteen Army Scout Rangers were killed in the municipality of Al Barka on Mindanao's island province of Basilan, and the horrible mutilation that was commited against some of their bodies, my mind was naturally drawn back to an eerily similar incident that took place on July 10th, 2007, when, in that same town, in fact in that very same barangay, Guinanta, fourteen Marines met a similar tragic fate. Indeed, not only was it the same group, the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces, or BIAF as the MILF military wing is more commonly known, that took center stage in both these incidents, we even have the very same BIAF "baddies" to boo and hiss at since the Government failed to handle it effectively the first time around.
In my entry "Prequel, Part 1," I discussed that July 10th, 2007 incident in minute detail. In the subsequent entry, "Prequel, Part 2," I discussed the jist of the joint Government and MILF investigatory report and wove it into the whole sordid affair and then closed that entry by noting how in November of 2009 one BIAF sub-Kumander, Haji Ustadz Asnawi Hassan "Laksaw" Addan Salah, the man we all know and love as "Dan Asnawi," but whose real playmates tend to call "Abu Mazen," was arrested for his reputed role in that 2007 bloodbath. In this, the third and final of my "Prequel" entries, I will discuss the events subsequent to Asnawi's arrest and how that arrest directly led to the October 18th, 2011 atrocities.
The pilgrimage to the Saudi Arabian cities of Mecca and Medina, known as "al Hajj" in Arabic, is one of the five "pillars" of Islam. If an adult is physically and financially able to do so, they must take this pilgrimage at least once in their lifetime. A prevalent folk belief holds that all who complete the pilgrimage are at the point of completion automatically absolved of all sins committed up until that point. Moreover, one who has completed this pilgrimage is entitled to claim the title of "Haji" (or "Hajah" if female), a mark of great distinction and respect in most of the Muslim World. In the Philippines the cost of Hajj is actually set by the Philippine Government who negotiates an all inclusive package with the Saudi Arabian Government. The cost? This last Hajj, in 2011, it ran above P160,000 ($3,400), equivalent to two years salary for a middle class Filipino and precious few Muslim Filipinos come anywhere near anyone's definition of "Middle Class." Therefore one can easily see that the pilgrimage is an important, life changing event, pivotal spiritually and financially in the life of a Filipino Muslim.
Sub-Kumander Dan Asnawi is the second in charge of the BIAF's 114 Base Command, the element with operation control over the entire province of Basilan. He himself had undertaken this pilgrimage many years ago but had long promised one of his wives that he would take her on that same pilgrimage ("one of his wives" because he is polygamous as Islam allows one man up to four wives). On November 7th, 2009, Asnawi and his wife joined Mayor Mohammed Kabukisan, the chief executive of Al Barka, the town Asnawi calls home, on the first leg of that all important life changing journey. Boarding a Pilippine Air jet in Zamboanga City International Airport the small group excitedly stowed their things and buckled in for the hour long flight to Manila where the small contingent from Basilan would link with contingents of other Filipino Muslims from all corners of the nation and together fly onward to Saudi Arabia in chartered craft from the Saudi flag carrier. The plane slowly moved away from the airport terminal and taxied to a staging platform before entering a runway for departure...and then abruptly shut its engines. Few aboard had ever flown before, let alone flown much, and so that abrupt engine shutoff didn't register with them as unusual.
As the excitement that comes with one's departure on a long planned journey began to wane in the stifling tropical heat the plane's passengers were shocked when the door of the craft suddenly opened and in rushed PNP SAF commandos (Philippine National Police Special Action Force), armed and in combat mode. Stalking the centre aisle and moving steadily but with caution, their rifles pointed directly at Asnawi, the lead officer ordered the shocked BIAF officer to slowly put his arms up, then rise before immediately moving into the aisle. Complying, Asnawi found himself being forced face down into the aisle and then hooded and handcuffed behind his back. Ignoring the questions coming from both Asnawi's wife as well as from Mayor Kabukisan, the police commandos frog marched Asnawi off of the plane, onto the tarmac, and directly into an unmarked minivan sitting in a small convoy of police vehicles before the motorcade quickly sped off for the farside of the airport. After a quick transfer into an SUV the line of police vehicles into the city proper en route to the Police Regional Headquarters at Camp Abendan.
Camp Abendan is also the headquarters of DIPO-West, or the Directorate of Integrated Police Operations for Western Mindanao, the entity which had staged the arrest of Asnawi, the SAF being merely a field unit of the Police Regional Command (PRO-9). When it became quite clear that Asnawi wouldn't be co-operating they quickly bundled him onto a waiting helicopter for the 18 kilometer ride back across the Basilan Strait and by the next morning, November 8th, Asnawi was lodged into the Basilan Provincial Jail in Isabela City's Barangay Sumagdang. Almost immediately Military Intelligence began picking up chatter in and around Zamboanga City about the MILF Central Command being asked to greenlight a "liberation mission" to free Asnawi. For once a Philippine security agency had done its job competently and effectively and instead of receiving positive re-inforcement for having done so, it was instead ignored...well, mostly anyway. The Army's 1st Infantry Division (1ID) quickly transmitted its scoop to the Provincial Police Office, or PPO. The Basilan PPO's Director, Superintendent Abubakar Tulawie then promptly informed the warden of the Basilan Provincial Jail, Jumaril Sali, who then...did nothing. When Director followed up on the matter he found that Warden Sali wouldn't even allow him to enter the facility's front gate.
After repeated inquiries went nowhere Director Tulawie deployed a six man detachment to a hastily created post directly in front of the jail. These six policemen were never allowed through the jail's first gate, even to use the "comfort room" (as the loo or bathroom is known hereabouts). Indeed this was a very strange response and all the more so for a warden that had through two jail breaks in the preceding three years. Still, there wasn't much that Director could do at the moment.
Basilan Provincial Jail sits on a one hectare parcel of land that backed by thick jungle. Separating the jail is a three meter tall wall. Constructed of common cinderblock and mortar, above the first meter it is strengthened with a mildly reinforced concrete exterior, but for some unexplicable reason the first meter itself is simply cinderblock with mortar to bond them.
On the night of December 7th, 2009, two BIAF detachments from the 114 Base Command approached Isabela City through the jungle. Ten meters from the treeline the detachment commander, sub-Kumander Long Sulaiman split his force into two seperate elements, ten guerillas fanned out along a line, with five of them moving up a strand of trees that skirted one side of the jail to the fromt gate, so as to provide cover to the operation detachment's fifty guerillas as well as to keep the police detachment and any possible re-inforcements in check. Approaching the three meter high wall two guerillas wielding sledgehammers began to beat against the bottom portion, far short of the reinforced concrete. Finally breaking through the cinderblocks the men widened a square hole measuring one and a half meters by one and a half meters through which the fifty guerillas then infiltrated the jail's yard.
Quickly making their way into the main building containing the communal cells then holding sixty-four inmates. Using a simple bolt cutter to pry off the common padlocks that were used to secure the cells the guerillas created enough noise so that two of the three guards on dutie came running. As Jail Officer Grade Three (JO3) Ron Nasser and JO1 Nozer Sali descended the stairs from the small office where all three guards had been sleeping they ran into a burst of fire from at least four M16s. Nasser and Sali, armed only with pump shotguns were both hit by several rounds each. Although Nasser died instantly Sali managed to hold on and eventually pulled through. One of the BIAF guerillas was himself hit by Friendly Fire when he had the misfortune to be posted as a guard in between the stairway and the cellblock. He too was killed but was buried without having had his identity discovered.
At the front gate the six police were immediately awakened and although they had been given two ladders by, their superiors, so that in the event of an emergency they might still be able to enter the jail's grounds since Warden Sali's steadfast refusal to grant them what should have been their unassailable right since they are responsible for law enforcement even inside the provincial jail. One of the six policemen did manage to enter the jail yard via one of those same ladders only to find himself pinned down by sniper fire from the strand of trees running parallel to the facility. His five comrades in arms faired no better all. The question of course then naturally becomes whi did Warden Sali refuse not only to co-operate but to even allow a single police officer to do a spot safety check on the aging facility.
Warden Sali and one of his guards, Danie Cumbo, were paid P300,000 ($6,400) which was split evenly between them . Warden Sali has managed to turn a pretty penny (or cutiepie centavo, as the case may be) when he colluded in three separate BIAF attacks on the same jail, events naturally blamed on the Philippine bogeymen, the Abu Sayyaf (and let us never forget Jemaah Islamiyya). In fact, each break out from the Basilan Provincial Jail was co-ordinated with the MILF, and committed by its military wing, the BIAF.
The December of 2009 break out was planned by the 114 Base Command's sub-Kumander Hud "Long" Limaya, commander of the 3rd Brigade. Limaya had a very personal stake in the matter seeing as how his own second in command- co-incidentally his nephew- sub-Kumander Kamsa Limaya was incarcerated alongside the aforementioned Dan Asnawi. Both men were being held on fourteen counts of murder and several counts of frustrated murder for that July 10th, 2007 bloodbath in Al Barka. Hud Limaya delegated the actual operation to a sub-Kumander named Long Solaiman but he himself handled the logistics including the bribes going to Warden Sali.
Of sixty-four inmates in the jail, thirty-one were broken out including, in addition to the two high ranking BIAF officers I have already mentioned, three members. Of the remaining twenty-six, were Abu Sayyaf guerillas while the rest were simply the usual variety of ne'er do wells, common criminals and so forth. Once clear of the rear wall the escapees and guerillas broke into small groups that each took different routes through the jungle. The Abu Sayyaf escapees planned to regroup in an Abu Sayyaf encampment in the municipality of Sumisip and all but one eventually made it. Of the five BIAF escapees, all made their way to the 3rd Brigade's camp in Barangay Guinanta, in the town of Al Barka.
Governor Jum Akbar was under incredible stress. After a highly contentious election seven months before Ms.Akbar had finally heaved a sigh of relief as she was sworn in as the province's first female governor. One of four wives of former Governor Wahab Akbar (see my 2010 entry, "Portrait of a Warlord, Part I: Wahab Akbar), a second wife, Cherry Lyn Santos Akbar had just become Mayor of Isabela City. Their husband Wahab had himself had also successfuly won a race to become the province's lone Congressman. Wahab, a former MNLF second in command was also a co-founder of Abu Sayyaf. From smuggling boatloads of cigarettes from Malaysia to large scale distribution of "shabu" (smokable methamphetamine), to owning a bakery and a fishpond Akbar was a man with his finger in many pies, all of them the same flavour: Money. Like anyone ruthlessly ambitious Wahab Akbar had made himself a host of enemies. On November 13th of that year one or more of those enemies killed Congressman Akbar.
The murder of Wahab Akbar was memorable in a land where murder is an everyday occurrence. On the day in question Congressman Akbar had just finished a long day in session and was leaving the Congressional building in Metro Manila's Quezon City. As he and his entourage left the south wing entrance an unoccupied motorcycle parked meters away and with a powerful IED (Improvised Explosive Device, as in "bomb") detonated. Akbar, a driver, and a staffworker were immediately killed. Others would die on the operating table that night but the jist of the incident is that Governor Jum Akbar, back in Basilan, was suddenly left dead in the water. Rudderless now that her political svengali had suddenly been erased, the more pressing issue was the host of political foes that would love to see her join Wahab. All this and now the jailbreak. Understandably the Governor was near the breaking point.
Immediately she pressured the Police Provincial Office Director, Abubakar Tulawie, to produce a tangible scapegoat to hang the bulk of the guilt upon. Of course the usual culprit is simply labeled, "Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiyya," no names necessary. Governor Akbar, being a political neophyte and having just lost her only political advisor suddenly, went against the grain and actually demanded results. When Director Tulawie tried to educate her on the finer points of political pattycake she indignantly responded by trying to get him fired, and then did the unthinkable by trying to get the Military to replace its top two commanders on the island. Technically, Governors and other local government executives do hold quite abit of power in terms of who is assigned to their jurisdictions. In Governor Akbar's case however, she was one, a female, and two, without a powerful local champion now that her husband had been removed from the equation. All her "requests" ended up doing was creating a posioned work environment. The result of course is that virtually all but a handful of the provincial jail escapees remained free and nobody lifted a finger to change that.
In the Autumn of 2010 a major shift took place in Basilan's security echelon as the Fleet-Marine protocol that had long held sway on the island was shunted aside in favor of a novel approach. SOCOM, or the Special Operations Command, had long lobbied the Military's Chief of Staff for a chance to flex its muscles. Heretofore SOCOM was used merely in lead tactical roles but never placed in overall command. On Basilan, SOCOM finally got its long awaited chance to shine. Task Force Basilan gave way to Special Operations Task Force-Basilan, or SOTF-B in shorthand. Aside from a single infantry battalion, the 32nd (32IB), all elements were SOCOM born and bred, with the 4th Scout Rangers Battalion in the lead role, supported by 3rd Special Forces Battalion, more popularly known as "Airborne." This radical shift in doctrine would turn out to be highly problematic as I will show in my upcoming entry, "MILF Armed Contacts for the Fourth Quarter of 2011, Part II: Ambush in Al Barka, October 18th, 2011."
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