In my first two "Bombs Away" entries, both being "MILF Armed Contacts for the Second Quarter of 2011" I discussed how the MILF's military wing, the BIAF, or Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces, must find novel ways in which to raise funds. In the early years of the MILF Insurgency, from 1977 to about 1984 the organisation was much more cohesive. Founder, and then Chairman Hashim Salamat had served in the MNLF as its Chairman of Foreign Affairs (in addition to a concurrent role as Chairman of the Kutawato Revolutionary Committee, the MNLF political entity responsible for most of Central Mindanao(. In his role with the Foreign Affairs Committee Salamat liasoned with both political representatives AND intelligence agencies from several Muslim nations. Some, particularly the petrol-rich Gulf States were more then generous with providing support to the MNLF.
In 1976 MNLF Chairman Nur Misuari rode roughshod over both the MNLF Central Committee AS WELL AS its Executive Committee in trying to reach a consensus on the FPA, or Final Peace Agreement brokered by Libya. Known as "Tripoli 76" the FPA became a massive bone of contention and very quickly the MNLF imploded into several factions, one of which became, in 1981, the MILF/BIAF. Though support was nothing like the sort enjoyed by the MNLF it was still sufficient enough for the nascent organisation whose now infamous exponential growth only began in 1986 as the MNLF and GPH, or Government of the Philippines (then still known as the "GRP," or "Government of the Republic of the Philippines) began yet another interminable slow dance around a true lasting and just settlement.
Before too long however the MILF/BIAF's growth outpaced its resources and so the MILF Central Committee drew back on expidentures. Field Divisions (Base Commands only entered existence after the Buliok Complex War in 2003) were told to begin working towards self sufficiency. More than a few Field Divisions instructed their constituent brigades to do the same and by the end of the 1980s the Kidnap For Ransom Industry had become firmly entrenched throughout the MILF/BIAF AOR, or Area of Responsibility (as in "Area of Operation"). Though lucrative KFR wasn't going to support more than a few brigades. A more widely applicable endeavour presented itself in the form of Extortion and Protection Rackets. In this way groups were able to cast a much wider net, targeting municipal governments and corporations that would be invulnerable to KFR.
Today it is a very simple proposition. A letter is sent, a demand is made. If the target(s) balk, or do the insane thing and refuse, then the gloves quickly come off. The usual device is a 60MM or 81MM mortar shell, 9Volt battery charge, and Nokia cellphone trigger. The bomber simply dials a phone number and BOOM. The sickening aspect to all this is that if they chose, the Extortionists chose, they could very easily avoid human casualties. Targeting valuable business equipment would be very effective. Instead the bombers go after packed busses, or stores during the mid-day rush.
As I noted in my last "Bombs Away" entry, number two, the municipality of Kidapawan City in North Cotabato Province is once again under attack by the al Khobar Group. al Khobar is composed of BIAF guerillas though by all accounts there is no discussion, let alone approval of these Extortion activities by the BIAF General Staff OR MILF Central Committee. The worst that the MILF/BIAF hierachy can be accused of is willfull ignorance. Playing the devil's advocate however, there is no tight chain of command within the organisation. Take for example, the incident I covered in my recent entry, "MILF Armed Contacts for the Third Quarter of 2011, Part I" where I discussed the sub-conflict in the municipality of Datu Piang in Maguindanao Province. There, the BIAF's 106 Base Command under sub-Kumander Adzie has been going mano a mano with sub-Kumander Abu Nuwas of BIFF, or Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, the newest Islamo-fascist organisation on Mindanao. Though the fighting stopped on August 24th they had been warring since August 6th in what merely represents the latest round in a feud spanning half a decade.
The fighting began just prior to the latest formal Round in the GPH-MILF Peace Peocess, an absolutely crucial meeting for a number of reasons (please refer to my "GPH-MILF Peace Process for the Third Quarter of 2011"). Ergo the MILF Central Committee was absolutely desperate to squelch the fighting in Datu Piang. The Central Committee directly ordered sub-Kumander Adzie to cease and desist, to pull back into his camp and relegate his men to defencive posture. Adzie simply ignored the order. The Central Committee then deployed a team of Islamic clerics to reign their man in. Again, with no success. With the Peso spigot closed tightly there isn't much incentive for a BIAF line officer to kpwtow to a non-combatant sitting on the Central Committee.
al Khobar today is centered in the BIAF's 105 Base Command, under sub-Kumander Zabide "Bedz" Abdul, in his camp located in the municipality of Guindulungan's Barangay Pawas, in Maguindanao Province. Obstensibly operating without a direct mandate from the MILF/BIAF.
Due to the rash of bombings lately PRO-12, or Police Regional Office for Region 12, held a seminar on bomb awareness in the North Cotabato Provincial Capital Complex in Barangay Amas. That very night another bombing took place, just a street away. At 10PM that evening Mamapan Dimalen arrived in Kidapawan City by bus from the municipality of Guindulungan in Maguindanao Province. Meeting him at the bus terminal was Kalim Indigay, a resident of Sitio Pagagao in Kidapawan City's Barangay Patadon. Indigay was to guide Dimalan who had never been to the city.
As the pair made their way to Barangay Amas Dimalan revealed that their target was to be a National Irrigation Authority branch office. Taking a triksiad (most basic form of public transport, an offroad motorcycle with a fabricated aluminum shell with two bench seats for fares and an extra wheel like a sidecar) to the general vicinity before deciding to walk the last couple of blocks. As they approached the target though the IED, or Improvised Explosive Device (as in "bomb") prematurely detonated. Mamapan Dimalen died instantly, his head and extremities strewn across a bloody trail nearly a block long. Because he was nearly three meters away from the detonation Kalim Indigay survived, albeit with extremely critical wounds.
Rushed to the hospital Indigay remained lucid and was immediately subjected to interrogation despite his grave condition. Identifying himself as a guerilla in the BMA, or Bangsamoro Army, the armed wing of the MNLF-Misuari Faction, serving under Kumander Usman Kautin. He said that both he and Dimalen regularly set IEDs and that they were both earning handsome fees for doing so. Then, 3 hours after the detonation Kalim Indigay bled out and died.
In the blast the home of Nonong Labog was riddled with shrapnel as well though none of his sleeping family were injured.
The next morning, Saturday, August 13th, 2011, two IEDs fashioned out of 81MM mortar shells were found primed and attacked to a NAPORCOR, or National Power Corporation pylon in the town of Guindulungan in Maguindanao Province. After an AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) discovered the bombs. 6ID (Infantry Division) EOD, or Explosives and Ordnance Detachment safely removed the devices.
At noon that day, in Jolo City, on Sulu Province's Jolo Island, triksiad driver Hajulil Ayub was loading a package into his vehicle as it idled outside his home in the city's Barangay Kasultan when an alert passerby saw what he thought to be an IED. Notifying a nearby police officer who in turn approached the 28 year old triksiad driver to have a look see. Examining the package for himself the officer confirmed that the man had indeed been loading a powerful bomb into his vehicle. Arrested, Ayub is now within the confines of the Sulu Provincial Jail. Though there is a BIAF Base Command in the southernmost provinces of Mindanao, the 117, it is merely on one outlying island in Tawi Tawi Province. In Sulu there is a very small political bureau but it is inconsequential. The KFR Extortion Industries in Sulu Province are firmly under the control of ASG, or the Abu Sayyaf Group so that this IED at least is not related to MILF/BIAF activities.
Not long after, in Tacurong City in Sultan Kudarat Province, an alert vendor at the city bus terminal oversered a jeepney emptying its customers with a yellow sack remaining on the floor in the rear. Concerned, he alerted a police officer who discovered an IED fashioned from an 81MM mortar shell.
Showing posts with label IED. Show all posts
Showing posts with label IED. Show all posts
Thursday, September 1, 2011
MILF Armed Contacts, Second Quarter of 2011, Part III: Bombs Away Part 2
In "Bombs Away Part 1" I had offered a fair amount of information about the BIAF, or Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces, the armed wing of the MILF and its fund raising schemes. Certain Base Commands, as the BIAF's basic military formation is known, concentrate their fund raising activities in certain niche industries. For the 113 Base Command, whose AOR, or Area of Responsibility (as in "Area of Operation") encompasses all three provinces on the Zamboanga Peninsula:
1) Zamboanga del Sur
2) Zamboanga del Norte
3) Zamboanga Sibugay
along with a sliver of Lanao del Norte Province adjoining the peninsula concentrates its efforts in KFR, or Kidnapping for Ransom. Likewise, the 114 Base Command, whose AOR encompasses all of Basilan Province and many of the small islands sublimated to Zamboanga City, in Zamboanga del Norte Province. Ditto for the infamous Kumander Bravo and his 102 Base Command in Lanao del Norte Province, who is at least smart enough not to soil his own bed, concentrating his Kidnapping activities in the adjoining province of Lanao del Sur in partnership with the Mayor of Marawi City.
Other Base Commands dabble in KFR as well, but concentrate their efforts in Extortion and Protection Rackets. Some have found this activity so lucrative that they have opted out of the insurgency and instead enjoy rather comfortable lives. Both they and their comrades that are still fighting the good fight target a particular businessman, corporation or municipality and begin with a hand delivered letter outlining their demands. The process maybe repeated up to two more times but if payment isn't forthcoming the gloves quickly come off.
On June 1st, 2011 a vendor of Balut, that quinessential Filipino street food got, the suprise of her life when she noticed an unfamiliar box that had been mysteriously placed under her cart outside of Tacurong City's Fitmart Department Store in Sultan Kudarat Province. Though business was brisk with it being 645PM and the after dinner crowd miling about her downtown stall, the vendor remembered that she had seen a woman customer lay the box on the ground as she ordered a couple of the fertilised duck eggs marinated in rice vinegar. Believing that the woman customer had climbed aboard a bus at the adjacent busstop she thought it best if she looked for some identifying feature on the package.
Unable to discover anything of note the vendor opened the package only to find herself staring at two powerful IEDs, or Improvised Explosive Devices (as in "bombs"). Both fashioned out of 81MM mortar shells with alarm clock triggers and utilising 9Volt batteries for a charge, she immediately began screaming. Attracted by the commotion which nearly precipitated a stampede two police offices from the CPO, or City Police Office, investigated and immediately began ushering people away from the immediate area.
Fitmart has been targetted for Extortion throughout the MILF/BIAF AOR since the late 1990s. On April 22nd, 2002 the Fitmart in General Santos City was targetted by a motorcycle bomb. Rigged in a triksiad, the most basic form of Philippine public transportation (an offroad motorcycle encased inside an aluminum framed shell that supports two bench seats with an extra wheel, like a sidecar), the powerful IED killed 15 and wounded 60. BIAF member Abdulbasit Usman was nabbed for the General Santos bombing in June of 2002 in of all places...Tacurong City. However he wasn't kept under wraps for long having escaped from police custody in October of that same year.
As for this most recent targeting of Fitmart, on June 1st, near midnite the CPO in conjunction with the Sultan Kudarat PPO, or Police Provincial Office, arrested Mokamad Mantungan in connection with the bomb under the Balut vendor's table. Of course the vendor had sworn up and down that it had been a woman who had left the box but Philippine Law Enforcement doesn't consider such inconsistincies to be relevant. A warm body usually does the trick though a cold, dead body is often just as acceptable. Mr.Mantungan ended up being released on June 14th after Prosecutors admitted that there was absolutely nothing connecting him to the bomb. The police however insist he is the culprit while admitting that not a shred of evidence supports their absolute certainty. I love the following quote given the overall context:
"There are some indications he was privy to the attack." I would love to hear about those "indications." I am sure one major "indication" was that he is a "Muslim." Despite its name, Sultan Kudarat Province is over whelmingly a Christian province.
Saturday night, June 18th, 2011 was much like any other Saturday Night at the Starlight Videoke Bar in Tacurong City's Barangay Buenaflor, in Sultan Kudarat Province, except for the almost total lack of customers. The T'boli Tribal women working there were talking amongst themselves, hoping that business would pick up. Located on National Hiway, the establishment usually did a brisk business.
At 845PM a powerful IED, fashioned from an 81MM mortar shell with a Nokia cellphone trigger detonated, wounding five employees:
1) Elenita Molan Alesna, age 45, of Barangay Apong in General Santos City in Sarangani Province
2) Noraida Tabon Lagiya, age 26, from the municipality of T'boli in South Cotabato Province
3) Glaiza Juan Caday, 19, of T'boli in South Cotabato Province
4) Noraya Raiza, 23 of T'boli, South Cotabato Province
5) Rosalie Lakim, aged 32 of Tacurong City's Barangay Fatima
June 21st, 2011, the AFP responded to intelligence that had unknown men frequently entering and leaving a home in the municipality of S.K.Pendatun in Maguindanao Province. Upon searching the domicile the PNP, or Philippine National Police (all police at any level are part and parcel of the PNP) discovered a small cachet. Two IEDs were discovered, fashioned out of RPG, or Rocket Propelled Grenade rounds. The MILF manufactures its own RPG rounds for the BIAF. Most arecountergeit BM40 shells. The charges were not attached but the cellphone triggers were showing that the devices were about to be transported for deployment. Additional IED components and a single round for an M203 rifle grenade launcher. 6ID's EOD disposed of the two IEDs via controlled detonation with a Phased Water Cannon, or PWC.
Very interestingly both the AFP, via the 6ID spokesperson AND DIPO-West Commanding Officer, Felicimo Khu insisted that the materiel was the handiwork of...Abdul Basit Usman. The problem with that however is that the US claims to have killed Usman in a UAV strike. UAV, or Unmanned Air Vehicle, are employed for surveillance, intelligence gathering, AND targeted killings. The Americans claim that Usman was an unintended bonus from an attack against a member of the Pakistani Taliban's hierarchy. Ustadz Mohiden Usman was a member of the MILF/BIAF attached to the group's Da'awah Center in the municipality of Sultan Kudarat (not to be confused with the province bearing that very same name), in Maguindanao Province. He was nabbed by the AFP, or Armed Forces of the Philippines in 2004 after which he disappeared and is presumed to have been a victim of Extra Judicial Killing.
The AFP and PNP refuse to buy into the American narrative and continue accusing Basit Usman in most bombings.
On June 27th, 2011 at 10AM the Crossing Dukay (Dukay Bridge) checkpoint, in Sultan Kudarat Province's municipality of Esperanza, located in Barangay Crossing Dukay was being extremely vigilant. AFP, or Armed Forces of the Philippines assets within the MILF/BIAF had revealed a short term plan to bomb Cotabato City in North Cotabato Province. Moreover, just that morning two bombs had detonated in Koronadal City. Manned by PNP, or Philippine National Police from Sultan Kudarat PPO and the PRO-12 PSC, or Police Regional Office for Region 12's Public Safety Company (formerly the PMG, or Police Mobile Group) were going over each and every vehicle with a fine tooth comb. As the vehicles made their way through the line at the foot of the bridge the officers manning the checkpoint must have groaned outloud after seeing the Toyota Hi-Ace passenger van inching towards them. Piled high with sacks of bananas it would not be one of their easier inspections. Still, traversing the Tacurong City to Koronadal City route meant that the vehicle was highly suspect even if apparently empty.
Lo and behold, midway through the inspection two sacks of bananas were found to be concealing IEDs. One was fasioned from a 60MM mortar shell while the other utilised an 81MM mortar shell. The 60MM device utilised four AA batteries as a charge while the 81MM device used a 9Volt battery. Neither device was outfitted with their cellphone triggers. PRO-12 EOD, the Explosives and Ordnance Division was called on to safely dispose of both IEDs.
That morning, June 27th, at 820 AM an IED had, as I mentioned above, detonated in Kidipawan City in North Cotabato Province. Placed by the gate in front of the CoA, or Committee of Audit in Barangay Amas blowing up a COTELCO (Cotabato Electric Cp-operative) but failing to injure anyone. Given the time of day it is a miracle that nobody was maimed or killed. Usually there is a line waiting to get into the CoA entrance for its 9AM opening. Moreover, the site is immediately adjacent to TESDA, or Technical Education Skills and Development Authority, which itself is usually faced with a crowd waiting to get in.
6ID Spokesperson, Colonel Prudencio Asto made the amazing claim that CIDG-12, or Central Investigation and Detection Group for Region 12, actually has Basit Usman in custody! Of course CIDG-12 said the opposite. The Mayor of Kidapawan City, Rodolfo Gatuangco, admitted that the town was facing an extortion attempt by a group calling itself al Khobar. The original al Khobar was composed of MILF/BIAF and MNLF/BMA (BMA being the Bangsamoro Army, the armed wing of the MNLF). It was decimated after successive AFP and PNP operations against it. Nowadays a sub-Kumander from the BIAF's 105 Base Command utilises the group's name in its fund raising activities.
Sub-Kumander Zabide "Bedz" Abdul remained with the MILF/BIAF after Kumander Ustadz Ameril Ombra Kato, the Commanding Officer of the 105 fell out of odds with the MILF Central Committee in late 2009 and went off to form the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, or BIFF. Commanding a camp in the municipality of S.K.Pendatun's Barangay Pawas in the infamous Liguasan Marsh, Abdul now serves under the 105's new Kumander, Zacarias Goma.
Mayor Gatuangco has faced al Khobar before. In late 2007 the city was targeted by al Khobar and Gatuangco paid them off. That is not unusual in the least, there isn't a municipal government in Central Mindanao that isn't paying Protection money or else mired in negotiations to do so. What IS unusual though is that Mayor Gatuangco publicly admitted he was doing so. Gatuangco claimed that he did so out of his own pocket (suuuuuure) and only then because he wanted to entrap the group. Depositing the cash in an acct based in Zamboanga Sibugay Province he admits that he was never able to trace what should have been a very simple trail. In Janurary of 2008 the Kidapawan City Council issued a Proclamation lauding Mayor Gatuangco for a "selfless" act. Not everyone was happy though; Councilor Gregory Yarra labeled the Mayor's "initiative" as "immoral" and would only serve to whet the tongue of criminals who would now continue in their Extortion. Councilor Yarra incidently was then serving as Chairman of the City Council Committee on Good Governance.
On June 29th, 2011, with nerves on edge after the recent bombings an alert citizen became very concerned when he noticed a black motorcycle that had been seemingly abandoned behind Koronadal City's old city hall, in South Cotabato Province. With motorcycle bombs being all too common on Mindanao the CPO, or City Police Office, deployed a bomb sniffing K9 to examine the motorcycle and immediate area around it. Upon arrival the dog alerted almost immediately and the handler radiod in for a general evacuation and an EOD to be deployed. In the end a single 45 caliber round was found in the motorcycle's storage box.
1) Zamboanga del Sur
2) Zamboanga del Norte
3) Zamboanga Sibugay
along with a sliver of Lanao del Norte Province adjoining the peninsula concentrates its efforts in KFR, or Kidnapping for Ransom. Likewise, the 114 Base Command, whose AOR encompasses all of Basilan Province and many of the small islands sublimated to Zamboanga City, in Zamboanga del Norte Province. Ditto for the infamous Kumander Bravo and his 102 Base Command in Lanao del Norte Province, who is at least smart enough not to soil his own bed, concentrating his Kidnapping activities in the adjoining province of Lanao del Sur in partnership with the Mayor of Marawi City.
Other Base Commands dabble in KFR as well, but concentrate their efforts in Extortion and Protection Rackets. Some have found this activity so lucrative that they have opted out of the insurgency and instead enjoy rather comfortable lives. Both they and their comrades that are still fighting the good fight target a particular businessman, corporation or municipality and begin with a hand delivered letter outlining their demands. The process maybe repeated up to two more times but if payment isn't forthcoming the gloves quickly come off.
On June 1st, 2011 a vendor of Balut, that quinessential Filipino street food got, the suprise of her life when she noticed an unfamiliar box that had been mysteriously placed under her cart outside of Tacurong City's Fitmart Department Store in Sultan Kudarat Province. Though business was brisk with it being 645PM and the after dinner crowd miling about her downtown stall, the vendor remembered that she had seen a woman customer lay the box on the ground as she ordered a couple of the fertilised duck eggs marinated in rice vinegar. Believing that the woman customer had climbed aboard a bus at the adjacent busstop she thought it best if she looked for some identifying feature on the package.
Unable to discover anything of note the vendor opened the package only to find herself staring at two powerful IEDs, or Improvised Explosive Devices (as in "bombs"). Both fashioned out of 81MM mortar shells with alarm clock triggers and utilising 9Volt batteries for a charge, she immediately began screaming. Attracted by the commotion which nearly precipitated a stampede two police offices from the CPO, or City Police Office, investigated and immediately began ushering people away from the immediate area.
Fitmart has been targetted for Extortion throughout the MILF/BIAF AOR since the late 1990s. On April 22nd, 2002 the Fitmart in General Santos City was targetted by a motorcycle bomb. Rigged in a triksiad, the most basic form of Philippine public transportation (an offroad motorcycle encased inside an aluminum framed shell that supports two bench seats with an extra wheel, like a sidecar), the powerful IED killed 15 and wounded 60. BIAF member Abdulbasit Usman was nabbed for the General Santos bombing in June of 2002 in of all places...Tacurong City. However he wasn't kept under wraps for long having escaped from police custody in October of that same year.
As for this most recent targeting of Fitmart, on June 1st, near midnite the CPO in conjunction with the Sultan Kudarat PPO, or Police Provincial Office, arrested Mokamad Mantungan in connection with the bomb under the Balut vendor's table. Of course the vendor had sworn up and down that it had been a woman who had left the box but Philippine Law Enforcement doesn't consider such inconsistincies to be relevant. A warm body usually does the trick though a cold, dead body is often just as acceptable. Mr.Mantungan ended up being released on June 14th after Prosecutors admitted that there was absolutely nothing connecting him to the bomb. The police however insist he is the culprit while admitting that not a shred of evidence supports their absolute certainty. I love the following quote given the overall context:
"There are some indications he was privy to the attack." I would love to hear about those "indications." I am sure one major "indication" was that he is a "Muslim." Despite its name, Sultan Kudarat Province is over whelmingly a Christian province.
Saturday night, June 18th, 2011 was much like any other Saturday Night at the Starlight Videoke Bar in Tacurong City's Barangay Buenaflor, in Sultan Kudarat Province, except for the almost total lack of customers. The T'boli Tribal women working there were talking amongst themselves, hoping that business would pick up. Located on National Hiway, the establishment usually did a brisk business.
At 845PM a powerful IED, fashioned from an 81MM mortar shell with a Nokia cellphone trigger detonated, wounding five employees:
1) Elenita Molan Alesna, age 45, of Barangay Apong in General Santos City in Sarangani Province
2) Noraida Tabon Lagiya, age 26, from the municipality of T'boli in South Cotabato Province
3) Glaiza Juan Caday, 19, of T'boli in South Cotabato Province
4) Noraya Raiza, 23 of T'boli, South Cotabato Province
5) Rosalie Lakim, aged 32 of Tacurong City's Barangay Fatima
June 21st, 2011, the AFP responded to intelligence that had unknown men frequently entering and leaving a home in the municipality of S.K.Pendatun in Maguindanao Province. Upon searching the domicile the PNP, or Philippine National Police (all police at any level are part and parcel of the PNP) discovered a small cachet. Two IEDs were discovered, fashioned out of RPG, or Rocket Propelled Grenade rounds. The MILF manufactures its own RPG rounds for the BIAF. Most arecountergeit BM40 shells. The charges were not attached but the cellphone triggers were showing that the devices were about to be transported for deployment. Additional IED components and a single round for an M203 rifle grenade launcher. 6ID's EOD disposed of the two IEDs via controlled detonation with a Phased Water Cannon, or PWC.
Very interestingly both the AFP, via the 6ID spokesperson AND DIPO-West Commanding Officer, Felicimo Khu insisted that the materiel was the handiwork of...Abdul Basit Usman. The problem with that however is that the US claims to have killed Usman in a UAV strike. UAV, or Unmanned Air Vehicle, are employed for surveillance, intelligence gathering, AND targeted killings. The Americans claim that Usman was an unintended bonus from an attack against a member of the Pakistani Taliban's hierarchy. Ustadz Mohiden Usman was a member of the MILF/BIAF attached to the group's Da'awah Center in the municipality of Sultan Kudarat (not to be confused with the province bearing that very same name), in Maguindanao Province. He was nabbed by the AFP, or Armed Forces of the Philippines in 2004 after which he disappeared and is presumed to have been a victim of Extra Judicial Killing.
The AFP and PNP refuse to buy into the American narrative and continue accusing Basit Usman in most bombings.
On June 27th, 2011 at 10AM the Crossing Dukay (Dukay Bridge) checkpoint, in Sultan Kudarat Province's municipality of Esperanza, located in Barangay Crossing Dukay was being extremely vigilant. AFP, or Armed Forces of the Philippines assets within the MILF/BIAF had revealed a short term plan to bomb Cotabato City in North Cotabato Province. Moreover, just that morning two bombs had detonated in Koronadal City. Manned by PNP, or Philippine National Police from Sultan Kudarat PPO and the PRO-12 PSC, or Police Regional Office for Region 12's Public Safety Company (formerly the PMG, or Police Mobile Group) were going over each and every vehicle with a fine tooth comb. As the vehicles made their way through the line at the foot of the bridge the officers manning the checkpoint must have groaned outloud after seeing the Toyota Hi-Ace passenger van inching towards them. Piled high with sacks of bananas it would not be one of their easier inspections. Still, traversing the Tacurong City to Koronadal City route meant that the vehicle was highly suspect even if apparently empty.
Lo and behold, midway through the inspection two sacks of bananas were found to be concealing IEDs. One was fasioned from a 60MM mortar shell while the other utilised an 81MM mortar shell. The 60MM device utilised four AA batteries as a charge while the 81MM device used a 9Volt battery. Neither device was outfitted with their cellphone triggers. PRO-12 EOD, the Explosives and Ordnance Division was called on to safely dispose of both IEDs.
That morning, June 27th, at 820 AM an IED had, as I mentioned above, detonated in Kidipawan City in North Cotabato Province. Placed by the gate in front of the CoA, or Committee of Audit in Barangay Amas blowing up a COTELCO (Cotabato Electric Cp-operative) but failing to injure anyone. Given the time of day it is a miracle that nobody was maimed or killed. Usually there is a line waiting to get into the CoA entrance for its 9AM opening. Moreover, the site is immediately adjacent to TESDA, or Technical Education Skills and Development Authority, which itself is usually faced with a crowd waiting to get in.
6ID Spokesperson, Colonel Prudencio Asto made the amazing claim that CIDG-12, or Central Investigation and Detection Group for Region 12, actually has Basit Usman in custody! Of course CIDG-12 said the opposite. The Mayor of Kidapawan City, Rodolfo Gatuangco, admitted that the town was facing an extortion attempt by a group calling itself al Khobar. The original al Khobar was composed of MILF/BIAF and MNLF/BMA (BMA being the Bangsamoro Army, the armed wing of the MNLF). It was decimated after successive AFP and PNP operations against it. Nowadays a sub-Kumander from the BIAF's 105 Base Command utilises the group's name in its fund raising activities.
Sub-Kumander Zabide "Bedz" Abdul remained with the MILF/BIAF after Kumander Ustadz Ameril Ombra Kato, the Commanding Officer of the 105 fell out of odds with the MILF Central Committee in late 2009 and went off to form the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, or BIFF. Commanding a camp in the municipality of S.K.Pendatun's Barangay Pawas in the infamous Liguasan Marsh, Abdul now serves under the 105's new Kumander, Zacarias Goma.
Mayor Gatuangco has faced al Khobar before. In late 2007 the city was targeted by al Khobar and Gatuangco paid them off. That is not unusual in the least, there isn't a municipal government in Central Mindanao that isn't paying Protection money or else mired in negotiations to do so. What IS unusual though is that Mayor Gatuangco publicly admitted he was doing so. Gatuangco claimed that he did so out of his own pocket (suuuuuure) and only then because he wanted to entrap the group. Depositing the cash in an acct based in Zamboanga Sibugay Province he admits that he was never able to trace what should have been a very simple trail. In Janurary of 2008 the Kidapawan City Council issued a Proclamation lauding Mayor Gatuangco for a "selfless" act. Not everyone was happy though; Councilor Gregory Yarra labeled the Mayor's "initiative" as "immoral" and would only serve to whet the tongue of criminals who would now continue in their Extortion. Councilor Yarra incidently was then serving as Chairman of the City Council Committee on Good Governance.
On June 29th, 2011, with nerves on edge after the recent bombings an alert citizen became very concerned when he noticed a black motorcycle that had been seemingly abandoned behind Koronadal City's old city hall, in South Cotabato Province. With motorcycle bombs being all too common on Mindanao the CPO, or City Police Office, deployed a bomb sniffing K9 to examine the motorcycle and immediate area around it. Upon arrival the dog alerted almost immediately and the handler radiod in for a general evacuation and an EOD to be deployed. In the end a single 45 caliber round was found in the motorcycle's storage box.
Monday, August 29, 2011
NPA Armed Contacts for the Third Quarter of 2011, Part IV: Davao Region, Quiet but NOT Sleeping
Up until the Spring of 2011 the Davao Region, or the Southern Mindanao Regional Committee was the most active of the NPA's five Regional Committees on Mindanao. Towards the end of spring, midway through the year's second quarter, Davao Region switched up its furious pace as NEMRC, or Northeast Mindanao Regional Committee and NCMRC, or Northcentral Mindanao Regional Committee both grabbed the baton and quickly picked up the pace. Building their own momentum both Regional Committtees re-established themselves in pacified areas. For NEMRC they have once again firmly established themselves in Surigao del Norte Province. NCMRC has done the same in Misamis Oriental Province.
Still, Davao Region isn't exactly sitting on the bench.
On August 14th, 2011 a blue compact automobile slowed down as it approached Task Force Davao's Sitio Mahayahay Checkpoint in Davao City's Barangay Mawab. Located in that city's Paquibato District the checkpoint is ground zero for the NPA Insurgency in that municipality. As I have well noted time and again Davao City's local warlord, Vice Mayor Rodrigo "Roddy" Duterte had long ago formed a mutually beneficial arrangement with local NPA leader Leonicio "Ka Parago" Pitao. In exchange for Parago's agreeing to keep the rest of Davao City insurgency free Duterte has graciously offered the NPA carte blanche in four of the city's poorest, outlying districts:
1) Calinan
2) Toril
3) Marilog
and of course
4) Paquibato
Duterte has honored the gentleman's agreement to a tee and with a couple of very notable exceptions (usually confined to adjacent Baguio District), so has Ka Parago. Task Force Davao was created in the Spring of 2004 after a pair of high profile bombings by ASG, or the Abu Sayyaf Group and its closely allied but now defunct RSM, or Rajah Solaiman Movement. The two bombings:
1) Davao International Airport, where the Arrivals Kiosk, a crude cinder block structure across the service road from the actual terminal where friends and family of arriving passengers congregate to wait was targetted by a very powerful IED, or Improvised Explosive Device (as in "bomb") that killed 21 people and wounded an astounding 145 more. The powerful device was concealed inside a common black backpack that was placed under a row of cheap aluminum framed seats for added shrapnel.
2) Sasa Wharf, Davao City's ferry wharf which like most ports in the Philippines is almost a city unto itself. Two young men ordered some barbecue chicken from a take away stall. As the stall workers were preoccupied with filling their order the youngmen deposited another black backpack under the stall's front counter and left with their chicken. The explosion killed 17 people and wounded 56.
In the aftermath Duterte, then serving as Mayor and fearing that the island's Islamic Insurgencies had brought their violence into Davao City had the AFP create a dedicated force to serve as the city's first line of defence against the envisioned threat by Islamic insurgents. The nascent Task Force, or TF as they are most commonly referred to, began life with some very notable Human Rights abuses against Davao City's Muslim minority. Initially Mayor Duterte blamed the two bombings on al Qaeda. The PNP, or Philippine National Police maintained that they were committed by JI, or Jemmah Islammiyah. After all, the Indonesian Islamo-fascist organisation had recently undertaken the equaly vile Bali bombing of a discoteque frequented by Australians. The group was the flavour de jour and so, JI it was. The AFP, or Armed Forces of the Philippines however were non plussed with all the grand theorising about Bin Laden and Indonesians swimming from Bali to Mindanao. They were absolutely sure that none other than Mindanao's very own MILF was responsible. For all his al Qaeda fantasies Mayor Duterte must have put stock in the AFP's version of events because he authorised raids amounting to little more than low intensity warfare against known functionaries of the MILF and BIAF, or Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces, the MILF military arm, who were unlucky enough to be residing in Davao City.
By the summer more rational thinking had returned, at least locally, since Manila was pushing through with the Department of Justice charging of MILF Founder slash Chairman Hashim Salamat and a number of his underlings for the two bombings. Though the charges wouldn't last long, just like the certainty of MILF involvement, TF Davao remained a part of the local landscape ever after.
The round fired by an occupant of the aforementioned blue automobile very narrowly missed striking the head of the AFP Corporal commanding the checkpoint and sending nearby food stalls and their customers into a state of pandemonium as the auto burned rubber speeding out of the city and into the adjacent municipality of Santa Cruz.
In the adjoining district of Paquibato's Barangay Paradise Embac is once again becoming the focus of the AFP's 69IB (Infantry Battalion) in its drive against the NPA. In early July of 2011 the 69th ensconced a detachment in one the barangay's two elementary schools, Paradise Embac Annex, under Second Lieutenant Tamayo with Seargent Garcia as his second in command. The barangay, like three fourths of its parent district Paquibato is under a parallel NPA Government so that an AFP garrison isn't well liked even if it wasn't living in an elementary school.
23 year old Redan Sumaria from the adjoining barangay, Paquibato Poblacion, claims that 2LT.Tamayo himself personally beat him when he was stopped at a 69IB checkpoint, after being told he "looked like NPA materiel." Likewise, 26 year old Dodong de Jesus of Barangay Paradise Embac's Sitio Upper Pandaitan claims it was Tamayo who pummeled his chest for no apparent reason at a checkpoint at that barangay's Crossing Guinobatan (Guinobatan Bridge in the sitio bearing that same name). On August 6th Tamayao and Sgt.Garcia allegedly beat Arim Maygon into unconsciousness for no apparent reason at the checkpoint immediately outside the school garrison. Others, like brothers Rudy and Cerilo Corbito complain that soldiers from the garrison have forbade them from working their own farms based upon allegations of support for the NPA.
In most NPA influenced areas these are run of the mill occurrences. On one hand the AFP and to a lesser extent the PNP harrasses and even tortures people it suspects of collusion with the NPA (those absolutely known to be in bed with the Maoists face a much worse fate). Yet the same holds true for those refusing to aid the NPA. Said to be agents of the state the NPA treats them even worse, usually expelling them from their own communities at the very least. The result being that one is damned if they do, damned if they don't.
Vis a vis the school garrison in Paquibato District, the Davao City Council has come out on the side of the villagers though one may also posit that they have come out on the side of the NPA, in which case, to be frank, it would be par for the course. Councillors Jimmy Dureza and Leah Librado Yap have co-authored a Resolution to bar the AFP from ensconcing itself within civilian institutions with a proviso expelling them from their garrison in Paradise Embac Annex. On August 25th Vice Mayor Duterte, on his television show "Ato ni Bay," (one of two weekly TV shows) urged the pair to follow through with their fight to neutralise the 69IB. Of course there is no suprise there, friend of the NPA that he is with nearly 35 years of scratching Ka Parago's back.
Duterte said that despite the Resolution passing unopposed on its first of three City Council Readings just that week, that they should still appeal directly to the Mayor, who of course is none other than Sarah "Inday" Duterte Carpio, his daughter. Duterte however tempered his support for the Resolution by noting that IF the underlying motive is to protect the well being of the students in the school slash garrison, the NPA would never attack a school even if full of AFP so that even in trying to appear fair and balanced Duterte ended up coming off like the NPA cheerleader he is, amazing, absolutely amazing.
Meanwhile, numerous residents of Barangay Paradise Embac's Puroks #6, 7, and 8 have filed yet another complaint with the City Council alleging that the 69IB's Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Colonel Patarata personally went door to door and menacingly pressured them into signing newly formulated "waivers" allowing his battalion to ensconce themselves in schools and other public buildings. Anyone who wavered or dared to resist was then told that they would be considered to be in support of the NPA. Considering the gasoline enema administered to a suspected ASG member in Basilan Province just weeks prior, and well publicised on Mindanao because of the unusual prosecution of the soldiers responsible, I am sure that LTC.Patarata got exactly what he wanted.
Panabo City, in Davao del Norte Province sits immediately adjacent to Davao City and lies within the city's SMRC, or Southern Mindanao Regional Committee AOR, or Area of Responsibility (as in "Area of Operations"). The NPA's SMRC last targetted Panabo this past spring with the ballsy tactical strike on the municipality's CPO, or City Police Office. On Friday, August 26th, 2011 in the city's Barangay Tibungol, a powerful IED detonated at the rear of Sibubon Elementary School. The powerful blast took place before daybreak, just 10 meters from a stage spanning the rear of the school. The blast is a bit mysterious since nothing was scheduled to take place on the stage, let alone anything having to do with the AFP or PNP, the usual targets of NPA Tactical Operations. However, 50 meters of detonation cord was found near the blast site leaving little question as to whether or not the NPA was involved.
Despite AFP propaganda claims the NPA does NOT utilise landmines. A typical NPA ambush DOES utilise IEDs but ALWAYS command controlled. In other words, the IED is directly detonated by an NPA guerilla via an electrical cable extending from the IED. This allows a carefully controlled detonation and prevents inadvertant detonation by other, non-legal targets. In fact, the NPA is the only organisation in Mindanao utilising command controlled detonation. The MILF/BIAF swears it no longer employs IEDs but when it did they were detonated by cordless remote, and prior to 2002 had utilised VDIEDs, Victim Detonated IEDs, a fancy acronym for what essentially amounts to a self-manufactured landmine, pressure detonated devices of varying strengths. So, this was an NPA detonation, but why there and why then remain a mystery.
Two men were sighted running from the blast site and into a rice paddy before disappearing into the jungle. Upon responding the 10ID (Infantry Division) EOD, or Explosives Ordanance Detachment discovered four other primed IEDs in the general vicinity. If I wanted to play armchair theorist I would reckon that the two men seen exiting the scene after the blast were members of an NPA IED detachment in the vicinity to secrete a number of IEDs for three ambushes, present and future. With a novice member of the detachment aboard the detachment leader took the opportunity to teach the novice how to to prime an IED for detonation. The site, behind the school was out of the way and shielded from the road upon which the IED probably would have been placed. An inadvertant detonation spooked them and they quickly escaped without retrieving their four other primed IEDs. Anyway, just a theory.
Still, Davao Region isn't exactly sitting on the bench.
On August 14th, 2011 a blue compact automobile slowed down as it approached Task Force Davao's Sitio Mahayahay Checkpoint in Davao City's Barangay Mawab. Located in that city's Paquibato District the checkpoint is ground zero for the NPA Insurgency in that municipality. As I have well noted time and again Davao City's local warlord, Vice Mayor Rodrigo "Roddy" Duterte had long ago formed a mutually beneficial arrangement with local NPA leader Leonicio "Ka Parago" Pitao. In exchange for Parago's agreeing to keep the rest of Davao City insurgency free Duterte has graciously offered the NPA carte blanche in four of the city's poorest, outlying districts:
1) Calinan
2) Toril
3) Marilog
and of course
4) Paquibato
Duterte has honored the gentleman's agreement to a tee and with a couple of very notable exceptions (usually confined to adjacent Baguio District), so has Ka Parago. Task Force Davao was created in the Spring of 2004 after a pair of high profile bombings by ASG, or the Abu Sayyaf Group and its closely allied but now defunct RSM, or Rajah Solaiman Movement. The two bombings:
1) Davao International Airport, where the Arrivals Kiosk, a crude cinder block structure across the service road from the actual terminal where friends and family of arriving passengers congregate to wait was targetted by a very powerful IED, or Improvised Explosive Device (as in "bomb") that killed 21 people and wounded an astounding 145 more. The powerful device was concealed inside a common black backpack that was placed under a row of cheap aluminum framed seats for added shrapnel.
2) Sasa Wharf, Davao City's ferry wharf which like most ports in the Philippines is almost a city unto itself. Two young men ordered some barbecue chicken from a take away stall. As the stall workers were preoccupied with filling their order the youngmen deposited another black backpack under the stall's front counter and left with their chicken. The explosion killed 17 people and wounded 56.
In the aftermath Duterte, then serving as Mayor and fearing that the island's Islamic Insurgencies had brought their violence into Davao City had the AFP create a dedicated force to serve as the city's first line of defence against the envisioned threat by Islamic insurgents. The nascent Task Force, or TF as they are most commonly referred to, began life with some very notable Human Rights abuses against Davao City's Muslim minority. Initially Mayor Duterte blamed the two bombings on al Qaeda. The PNP, or Philippine National Police maintained that they were committed by JI, or Jemmah Islammiyah. After all, the Indonesian Islamo-fascist organisation had recently undertaken the equaly vile Bali bombing of a discoteque frequented by Australians. The group was the flavour de jour and so, JI it was. The AFP, or Armed Forces of the Philippines however were non plussed with all the grand theorising about Bin Laden and Indonesians swimming from Bali to Mindanao. They were absolutely sure that none other than Mindanao's very own MILF was responsible. For all his al Qaeda fantasies Mayor Duterte must have put stock in the AFP's version of events because he authorised raids amounting to little more than low intensity warfare against known functionaries of the MILF and BIAF, or Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces, the MILF military arm, who were unlucky enough to be residing in Davao City.
By the summer more rational thinking had returned, at least locally, since Manila was pushing through with the Department of Justice charging of MILF Founder slash Chairman Hashim Salamat and a number of his underlings for the two bombings. Though the charges wouldn't last long, just like the certainty of MILF involvement, TF Davao remained a part of the local landscape ever after.
The round fired by an occupant of the aforementioned blue automobile very narrowly missed striking the head of the AFP Corporal commanding the checkpoint and sending nearby food stalls and their customers into a state of pandemonium as the auto burned rubber speeding out of the city and into the adjacent municipality of Santa Cruz.
In the adjoining district of Paquibato's Barangay Paradise Embac is once again becoming the focus of the AFP's 69IB (Infantry Battalion) in its drive against the NPA. In early July of 2011 the 69th ensconced a detachment in one the barangay's two elementary schools, Paradise Embac Annex, under Second Lieutenant Tamayo with Seargent Garcia as his second in command. The barangay, like three fourths of its parent district Paquibato is under a parallel NPA Government so that an AFP garrison isn't well liked even if it wasn't living in an elementary school.
23 year old Redan Sumaria from the adjoining barangay, Paquibato Poblacion, claims that 2LT.Tamayo himself personally beat him when he was stopped at a 69IB checkpoint, after being told he "looked like NPA materiel." Likewise, 26 year old Dodong de Jesus of Barangay Paradise Embac's Sitio Upper Pandaitan claims it was Tamayo who pummeled his chest for no apparent reason at a checkpoint at that barangay's Crossing Guinobatan (Guinobatan Bridge in the sitio bearing that same name). On August 6th Tamayao and Sgt.Garcia allegedly beat Arim Maygon into unconsciousness for no apparent reason at the checkpoint immediately outside the school garrison. Others, like brothers Rudy and Cerilo Corbito complain that soldiers from the garrison have forbade them from working their own farms based upon allegations of support for the NPA.
In most NPA influenced areas these are run of the mill occurrences. On one hand the AFP and to a lesser extent the PNP harrasses and even tortures people it suspects of collusion with the NPA (those absolutely known to be in bed with the Maoists face a much worse fate). Yet the same holds true for those refusing to aid the NPA. Said to be agents of the state the NPA treats them even worse, usually expelling them from their own communities at the very least. The result being that one is damned if they do, damned if they don't.
Vis a vis the school garrison in Paquibato District, the Davao City Council has come out on the side of the villagers though one may also posit that they have come out on the side of the NPA, in which case, to be frank, it would be par for the course. Councillors Jimmy Dureza and Leah Librado Yap have co-authored a Resolution to bar the AFP from ensconcing itself within civilian institutions with a proviso expelling them from their garrison in Paradise Embac Annex. On August 25th Vice Mayor Duterte, on his television show "Ato ni Bay," (one of two weekly TV shows) urged the pair to follow through with their fight to neutralise the 69IB. Of course there is no suprise there, friend of the NPA that he is with nearly 35 years of scratching Ka Parago's back.
Duterte said that despite the Resolution passing unopposed on its first of three City Council Readings just that week, that they should still appeal directly to the Mayor, who of course is none other than Sarah "Inday" Duterte Carpio, his daughter. Duterte however tempered his support for the Resolution by noting that IF the underlying motive is to protect the well being of the students in the school slash garrison, the NPA would never attack a school even if full of AFP so that even in trying to appear fair and balanced Duterte ended up coming off like the NPA cheerleader he is, amazing, absolutely amazing.
Meanwhile, numerous residents of Barangay Paradise Embac's Puroks #6, 7, and 8 have filed yet another complaint with the City Council alleging that the 69IB's Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Colonel Patarata personally went door to door and menacingly pressured them into signing newly formulated "waivers" allowing his battalion to ensconce themselves in schools and other public buildings. Anyone who wavered or dared to resist was then told that they would be considered to be in support of the NPA. Considering the gasoline enema administered to a suspected ASG member in Basilan Province just weeks prior, and well publicised on Mindanao because of the unusual prosecution of the soldiers responsible, I am sure that LTC.Patarata got exactly what he wanted.
Panabo City, in Davao del Norte Province sits immediately adjacent to Davao City and lies within the city's SMRC, or Southern Mindanao Regional Committee AOR, or Area of Responsibility (as in "Area of Operations"). The NPA's SMRC last targetted Panabo this past spring with the ballsy tactical strike on the municipality's CPO, or City Police Office. On Friday, August 26th, 2011 in the city's Barangay Tibungol, a powerful IED detonated at the rear of Sibubon Elementary School. The powerful blast took place before daybreak, just 10 meters from a stage spanning the rear of the school. The blast is a bit mysterious since nothing was scheduled to take place on the stage, let alone anything having to do with the AFP or PNP, the usual targets of NPA Tactical Operations. However, 50 meters of detonation cord was found near the blast site leaving little question as to whether or not the NPA was involved.
Despite AFP propaganda claims the NPA does NOT utilise landmines. A typical NPA ambush DOES utilise IEDs but ALWAYS command controlled. In other words, the IED is directly detonated by an NPA guerilla via an electrical cable extending from the IED. This allows a carefully controlled detonation and prevents inadvertant detonation by other, non-legal targets. In fact, the NPA is the only organisation in Mindanao utilising command controlled detonation. The MILF/BIAF swears it no longer employs IEDs but when it did they were detonated by cordless remote, and prior to 2002 had utilised VDIEDs, Victim Detonated IEDs, a fancy acronym for what essentially amounts to a self-manufactured landmine, pressure detonated devices of varying strengths. So, this was an NPA detonation, but why there and why then remain a mystery.
Two men were sighted running from the blast site and into a rice paddy before disappearing into the jungle. Upon responding the 10ID (Infantry Division) EOD, or Explosives Ordanance Detachment discovered four other primed IEDs in the general vicinity. If I wanted to play armchair theorist I would reckon that the two men seen exiting the scene after the blast were members of an NPA IED detachment in the vicinity to secrete a number of IEDs for three ambushes, present and future. With a novice member of the detachment aboard the detachment leader took the opportunity to teach the novice how to to prime an IED for detonation. The site, behind the school was out of the way and shielded from the road upon which the IED probably would have been placed. An inadvertant detonation spooked them and they quickly escaped without retrieving their four other primed IEDs. Anyway, just a theory.
Friday, August 19, 2011
Political Developments for the Third Quarter of 2011, Part I: Assasination Attempt on Governor Mangudadatu, Part 2
After Director Senior Superintendent Marcelo Pintac of the PPO, or Police Provincial Office of Maguindanao Province failed in his attempt to have the Provincial Board of Maguindanao censure Mayor Reshel Santiago Ampatuan of Datu Unsay, the Mangudadatu Clan sponsoring Pintac temporarily turned their attentions towards other more pressing problems.
Just two weeks later, on March 15th, 2011, at 4PM, Maguindanao's Provincial Prosecutor Akilali Balt was in the mood for a game of tennis. His driver slash bodyguard Dandan Balt Datu Dakula, a maternal relative was driving Prosecutor Balt to the tennis court near his home in Cotabato City, in the adjacent province of North Cotabato. As the Government owned black Isuzu Fuego pickup truck drove down Sinsuat Avenue in the city's Barangay Mother traffic slowed almost to a standstill. As the truck inched its way toward the corner of Pansacala Street a black and white Honda Wave motorcycle managed to thread its way through the stalled vehicles until it was nearly parallel with Balt's pickup truck. The man riding tandem on the back of the motorcycle slowly raised a 45 caliber pistol and squeezed off 5 rounds, 3 of which connected with the target, Prosecutor Balt. Shot in his lower right ear, lower right neck, and on his right forearm Balt slumped in his seat.
As the motorcycle began moving forward and turning slowly down Pansacala Street Balt's driver Dandan got out of the truck to give chase. Reaching the corner in time to see the motorcycle accelerate down Pansacala Street he stupidly endangered hundreds of people by squeezing off 7 rounds out of his own 45. Quickly returning to the truck Dandan stood vigil until Prosecutor Balt had been attended to and transported to the city's Notre Dame Hospital, before being transferred to Davao Doctors Hospital in Davao City later that night. Meanwhile, as luck would have it, a rookie police officer with the Cotabato City CPO, or City Police Office, gave chase as he saw the motorcycle roar past him on Pansacala Street. Most police on the island, certainly in Cotabato City, are wise enough to steer well clear of any professional killing. Two men tandem on a single motorcycle and utilising a 45 caliber pistol is a textbook case of "murder for hire." Gung ho rookies though see things very differently.
Finally coming upon the motorcycle abandoned on a deserted section of Pansacala Street, in Barangay Rosary Height #10, the rookie alerted his superiors who began scouring the barangay. A little more than 8 hours later a Barangay Tanod, or Barangay Guard heard a moaning sound emanating from a riverside culvert across the river from where the would be killer and his partner had ditched their motorcycle. Splitting up, the shooter, Acmad Makakena Maliga then swam across the Pulangi River (Rio Grande de Mindanao) before taking refuge in the aforementioned culvert. One of the rounds fired by Dandan Balt Datu Dakula had connected with Maliga's shoulder.
On March 18th Maliga authored a 5 page affadavit in which he named his driver, Marcelino S. Raguinot also known as James Tugaya or Noel Tugaya. Even more importantly Maliga revealed that Raguinot was employed as a bodyguard to a local politician. Most importantly, that politician had dispatched them with a strict order to kill Prosecutor Akilali Balt. Who was this local politician? Mayor Ibrahim "Diong" Mangudadatu of Buluan in Maguindanao Province. Shortly before the shooting took place Mangudadatu and Balt had almost come to blows when the Prosecutor had dropped weapons charges iniated by Director Marcelo Pintac against Datu Unsay's Mayor Reshal Santiago Ampatuan. Mangudadatu naturally took umbrage and did his best to twist Balt's arm on the matter. Preoccupied with the much more pressing gang rape of a 21 year old volunteer nurse in the municipality of North Upi, a case that at the time had riveted the attention of the nation, Prosecutor Balt didn't have the time or energy to cater to petty political feuds. The Mangudadatu Clan though doesn't handle denial very well.
As Balt was being transferred to Davao Doctors Hospital his daughter Aminah began a personal crusade for justice. Jotting off an email to Secretary Leila de Lima of the DOJ, or Department of Justice Aminah outlined all that she knew, having been taken into her father's confidence shortly before the shooting. She told of the heated argument with Mayor Mangudadatu and the dropping of charges against Mayor Ampatuan. Aminah asked that her father be transferred to another hospital in a safer locale, one out of reach to the Mangudadatu Clan and its wide circle of supporters. Ms. Balt asked that confessed triggerman Acmad Makakena Maliga be transferred from the Cotabato City Jail to the custody of the NBI, or National Bureau of Investigation at its headquarters in Metro Manila. The nation's top law enforcement agency is generally viewed as being above the fray and unbeholden to any political patron. Of course this isn't the case but it is undeniable that an inmate in fear for his life in a Mindanowan prison is in much safer hands simply by virtue of being held in Metro Manila. For the Mangudadatus, killing him in the Cotabato City Jail is a trifling matter. Finaly, Aminah Balt asked Secretary de Lima to appoint a Special Prosecutor to the case knowing that in Cotabato City justice could never be served.
On March 21st Secretary de Lima signed Departmental Order #200 in which she empaneled three trusted subordinates:
1) Assistant State Prosecutor Vimar Barcellano
2) Prosecutorial Attorney Mark Roland Estepa
3) Prosecutorial Attorney Gerard Gaerlan
to cover the preliminary aspects of the investigation. The order also authorised Balt's transfer to Capital University Hospital in Cagayan del Oro City, though the location wouldn't be revealed for safety reasons. Located in Misamis Oriental Province on the islands northern coast it was considered far enough away from Central Mindanao as to be relatively assured of safety. Unfortunately Balt's condition wouldn't be able to withstand the rigours or an air evacuation to Manila, more than 900 kilometers to the north. The order also set in motion the petition for a Change of Venue which if granted by the Supreme Court would have any eventual trial transferred out of Cotabato City's jurisdiction and allow proceedings to take place in Metro Manila where personnel aren't tarnished by either the Mangudadatu OR Ampatuan Clan's influence. Finally, the order also called for the transfer of Acmad Makakena Maliga to NBI custody. Aminah Balt got all she wished for and more.
On March 24th Chief Presiding Judge of Regional Trial Court #14 in Cotabato City, Bansawan Ibrahim al Haj signed off on the Transfer of Custody Order on Mr. Maliga allowing the NBI to take custody of him and whisk him off to the relative safety of Manila. That same week the DOJ Panel arrived in Cotabato City and began collecting new affadavits. In fact, on the very same day that Judge Ibrahim (al Haj is merely an honourific) signed that Transfer Order, Mayor Mangudadatu had been scheduled to appear in person and render his counter-affadavit. In other words, this was the day when Mangudadatu would finally get to clear the air. Since the killing 9 days earlier he had told anyone who would listen that he was chomping at the bit to present HIS side of the story. On the 24th however Mangudadatu was nowhere to be seen. From that point on Mangudadatu refused all communication with the Panel and despite being summoned to appear on two subsequent occaisons, June 16th and June 23rd, he never said another word. Before he found himself mute however his theory revolved around jealous rivals upset about his stated intention to run for Governor of ARMM, or Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao. Why a jealous rival would then kill Prosecutor Balk however was never articulated. The story became even more ridiculous when his uncle, clan patriarch Pax Mangudadatu himself entered the race and sidelined Mayor Ibrahim's ambition.
Though Prosecutor Balk had showed some modest improvement he took a turn for the worse on of all days, March 24th. Slipping into a coma Prosecutor Akilali Balt passed away at 808PM on Sunday, April 3rd. I would love to be able to tell you that justice is being served in the case but this is Mindanao after all where political killings are a part of the local landscape. Though officialy still empaneled the DOJ investigative team isn't doing much these days, having reverted to their earlier duties. The driver of the motorcycle, Marcelino S. Raguinot is still missing and presumed to have been killed by the Mangudadatus. Likewise with the owner of the motorcycle, Asma Samaon, though he played no direct role in the killing.
At 830PM on July 1st loitering residents saw two men riding tandem on a black Honda XRM turn off of the Mamasapano P
Roundabout (traffic circle) and drive slowly past them in Barangay Poblacion in Maguindanao Province's municipality of Shariff Aguak. The dirt acess road off of Isulan-Cotabato National Hiway led to a large compound holding al Khariah Mosque, generally referred to as Shariff Aguak's "Grand Mosque." On the right side of the compound sits the modest but comfortable home of Bai Galema Ampatuan Olimpaya, who besides being a daughter of the infamous clan patriarch Andal Ampatuan Sr., is also a Municipal Councilor in the town of Shariff Saydona Mustapha. Those same residents saw the two men dismount from their motorcycle inside the mosque compound while carrying a burlap rice sack containing a bulky object before the two men hurried next door to the Ampatuan home.
The men then unsuccessfully tried breaking into Councilor Ampatuan Olimpaya's home before getting spooked and quickly returning to the compound. There they deposited the rice sack on the right side of the mosque's facade and left just as the mosque's caretaker had been alerted by one of the curious onlookers. 27 year old caretaker Aminodin Arsad Satal, originally from Lanao del Sur Province had recently assumed his position as a favour to his father, the mosque's Imam, or cleric. Imam Satar had grown apprehensive over having such a high ranking member of the Ampatuan Clan living next door to the mosque. As Aminodin Satar came upon the rice sack he approached it but when he was still within a meter of the sack the IED, or Improvised Explosive Device (as in "bomb") inside it detonated. Fashioned from an 81MM mortar shell with a Nokia 5510 cellphone as the trigger it left a 30 centimeter deep crater in the asphalt in front of the facade and pockmarks all over the front exterior. Aminodin Arsad Satar was killed instantly.
At the heart of the aforementioned "weapons case" lodged against Mayor Reshal Santiago Ampatuan was SWAT, or Saviour Weapons and Tactics Security, owned by Cotabato City's Jesus "J.V," Martinez. Martinez is the scion of one of Cotabato City's oldest Christian families, his ancestors having moved there in the middle of the 19th Century. Marrying into the Ampatuan Clan, with the mandatory conversion to Islam, he parlayed a small fortune inherited from his parents into a considerable one reliant upon political patronage. Centering his small empire on Cotabato City's De Mazenod Street he left the day to day affairs to his extended family and spent most of his time in Davao City.
On August 2nd a motorcycle rigged with a powerful IED was parked in front of Martinez's "SWAT Gun Store" on Quezon Avenue, just around the corner from De Mazenod Street. Unfortunately the 3 story building also housed a pharmacy and a number of other businesses as well. Even more unfortunately, when that IED detonated just after 8PM hapless passerby took the brunt of the explosion. 14 people were hit, including a 5 year old girl. One of those 14, photographer Jimmy Ali was killed instantly. The device consisted of a 60MM mortar shell and a Nokia 5510 cellphone trigger.
On August 6th the same attackers took aim at Martinez's "SWAT Security Agency," located inside a residential compound owned by Martinez on De Mazenod Street. At 740PM two men riding tandem on a single motorcycle pulled parallel to the compound's outer wall. The passenger then dismounted, threw an M67 fragmentation grenade into the compound, re-mounted and the two calmly rode off just as the grenade detonated with a thunderous blast. Fortuitously noone was hit in that explosion despite one of Martinez's brothers in law having been inside the security agency office just 2 meters from where the grenade made contact. Aside from all windows in the building being shattered there were no casualties as he had been in a back office and so emerged unscathed. Though Martinez doesn't live in the compound some of his extended family does and so the last attack literally hit closer to home.
Predictably the authorities are busy tripping over each other in the mad race to make fools of themselves. Cotabato City's CPO pinned the first attack on...Jemmah Islamiyyah, or JI. DIPO-West, or Directorate of Integrated Police Operations-Western Sector Director Senior Superintendant Felicisimo Khu concurred. The AFP, or Armed Forces of the Philippines, via the 6ID, or 6th Infantry Division Spokesperson put the blame on the "MILF SOG," or Special Operations Group and its bogeyman, the Afghan-trained Basit Usman. Within two days though they began inching away from their semi-retarded pronouncements as Cotabato City Administrator, attorney Cynthia Guiani Sayadi took to the airwaves and blamed it all on "personal grudges" against Mr. Martinez. However in her mind those "grudges" related to Martinez having recently sold tracts of land in Maguindanao Province and having failed to share in the profits with his large extended family.
When one realises that Ms. Sayadi herself has also married into the Ampatuan Clan (and converted to Islam as well though it isn't required of females) the story becomes clearer. Linking the attacks to the Datu Unsay weapons case against Mayor Reshal Santiago Ampatuan and the feud with the Mangudadatu Clan will only bring closer scrutiny to the whole sordid affair and therefore prevent retaliatory action...like the August 15th assasination attempt against Maguindanao Governor Esmael "Toto" Mangudadatu via that powerful carbomb in Tacurong City.
Just two weeks later, on March 15th, 2011, at 4PM, Maguindanao's Provincial Prosecutor Akilali Balt was in the mood for a game of tennis. His driver slash bodyguard Dandan Balt Datu Dakula, a maternal relative was driving Prosecutor Balt to the tennis court near his home in Cotabato City, in the adjacent province of North Cotabato. As the Government owned black Isuzu Fuego pickup truck drove down Sinsuat Avenue in the city's Barangay Mother traffic slowed almost to a standstill. As the truck inched its way toward the corner of Pansacala Street a black and white Honda Wave motorcycle managed to thread its way through the stalled vehicles until it was nearly parallel with Balt's pickup truck. The man riding tandem on the back of the motorcycle slowly raised a 45 caliber pistol and squeezed off 5 rounds, 3 of which connected with the target, Prosecutor Balt. Shot in his lower right ear, lower right neck, and on his right forearm Balt slumped in his seat.
As the motorcycle began moving forward and turning slowly down Pansacala Street Balt's driver Dandan got out of the truck to give chase. Reaching the corner in time to see the motorcycle accelerate down Pansacala Street he stupidly endangered hundreds of people by squeezing off 7 rounds out of his own 45. Quickly returning to the truck Dandan stood vigil until Prosecutor Balt had been attended to and transported to the city's Notre Dame Hospital, before being transferred to Davao Doctors Hospital in Davao City later that night. Meanwhile, as luck would have it, a rookie police officer with the Cotabato City CPO, or City Police Office, gave chase as he saw the motorcycle roar past him on Pansacala Street. Most police on the island, certainly in Cotabato City, are wise enough to steer well clear of any professional killing. Two men tandem on a single motorcycle and utilising a 45 caliber pistol is a textbook case of "murder for hire." Gung ho rookies though see things very differently.
Finally coming upon the motorcycle abandoned on a deserted section of Pansacala Street, in Barangay Rosary Height #10, the rookie alerted his superiors who began scouring the barangay. A little more than 8 hours later a Barangay Tanod, or Barangay Guard heard a moaning sound emanating from a riverside culvert across the river from where the would be killer and his partner had ditched their motorcycle. Splitting up, the shooter, Acmad Makakena Maliga then swam across the Pulangi River (Rio Grande de Mindanao) before taking refuge in the aforementioned culvert. One of the rounds fired by Dandan Balt Datu Dakula had connected with Maliga's shoulder.
On March 18th Maliga authored a 5 page affadavit in which he named his driver, Marcelino S. Raguinot also known as James Tugaya or Noel Tugaya. Even more importantly Maliga revealed that Raguinot was employed as a bodyguard to a local politician. Most importantly, that politician had dispatched them with a strict order to kill Prosecutor Akilali Balt. Who was this local politician? Mayor Ibrahim "Diong" Mangudadatu of Buluan in Maguindanao Province. Shortly before the shooting took place Mangudadatu and Balt had almost come to blows when the Prosecutor had dropped weapons charges iniated by Director Marcelo Pintac against Datu Unsay's Mayor Reshal Santiago Ampatuan. Mangudadatu naturally took umbrage and did his best to twist Balt's arm on the matter. Preoccupied with the much more pressing gang rape of a 21 year old volunteer nurse in the municipality of North Upi, a case that at the time had riveted the attention of the nation, Prosecutor Balt didn't have the time or energy to cater to petty political feuds. The Mangudadatu Clan though doesn't handle denial very well.
As Balt was being transferred to Davao Doctors Hospital his daughter Aminah began a personal crusade for justice. Jotting off an email to Secretary Leila de Lima of the DOJ, or Department of Justice Aminah outlined all that she knew, having been taken into her father's confidence shortly before the shooting. She told of the heated argument with Mayor Mangudadatu and the dropping of charges against Mayor Ampatuan. Aminah asked that her father be transferred to another hospital in a safer locale, one out of reach to the Mangudadatu Clan and its wide circle of supporters. Ms. Balt asked that confessed triggerman Acmad Makakena Maliga be transferred from the Cotabato City Jail to the custody of the NBI, or National Bureau of Investigation at its headquarters in Metro Manila. The nation's top law enforcement agency is generally viewed as being above the fray and unbeholden to any political patron. Of course this isn't the case but it is undeniable that an inmate in fear for his life in a Mindanowan prison is in much safer hands simply by virtue of being held in Metro Manila. For the Mangudadatus, killing him in the Cotabato City Jail is a trifling matter. Finaly, Aminah Balt asked Secretary de Lima to appoint a Special Prosecutor to the case knowing that in Cotabato City justice could never be served.
On March 21st Secretary de Lima signed Departmental Order #200 in which she empaneled three trusted subordinates:
1) Assistant State Prosecutor Vimar Barcellano
2) Prosecutorial Attorney Mark Roland Estepa
3) Prosecutorial Attorney Gerard Gaerlan
to cover the preliminary aspects of the investigation. The order also authorised Balt's transfer to Capital University Hospital in Cagayan del Oro City, though the location wouldn't be revealed for safety reasons. Located in Misamis Oriental Province on the islands northern coast it was considered far enough away from Central Mindanao as to be relatively assured of safety. Unfortunately Balt's condition wouldn't be able to withstand the rigours or an air evacuation to Manila, more than 900 kilometers to the north. The order also set in motion the petition for a Change of Venue which if granted by the Supreme Court would have any eventual trial transferred out of Cotabato City's jurisdiction and allow proceedings to take place in Metro Manila where personnel aren't tarnished by either the Mangudadatu OR Ampatuan Clan's influence. Finally, the order also called for the transfer of Acmad Makakena Maliga to NBI custody. Aminah Balt got all she wished for and more.
On March 24th Chief Presiding Judge of Regional Trial Court #14 in Cotabato City, Bansawan Ibrahim al Haj signed off on the Transfer of Custody Order on Mr. Maliga allowing the NBI to take custody of him and whisk him off to the relative safety of Manila. That same week the DOJ Panel arrived in Cotabato City and began collecting new affadavits. In fact, on the very same day that Judge Ibrahim (al Haj is merely an honourific) signed that Transfer Order, Mayor Mangudadatu had been scheduled to appear in person and render his counter-affadavit. In other words, this was the day when Mangudadatu would finally get to clear the air. Since the killing 9 days earlier he had told anyone who would listen that he was chomping at the bit to present HIS side of the story. On the 24th however Mangudadatu was nowhere to be seen. From that point on Mangudadatu refused all communication with the Panel and despite being summoned to appear on two subsequent occaisons, June 16th and June 23rd, he never said another word. Before he found himself mute however his theory revolved around jealous rivals upset about his stated intention to run for Governor of ARMM, or Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao. Why a jealous rival would then kill Prosecutor Balk however was never articulated. The story became even more ridiculous when his uncle, clan patriarch Pax Mangudadatu himself entered the race and sidelined Mayor Ibrahim's ambition.
Though Prosecutor Balk had showed some modest improvement he took a turn for the worse on of all days, March 24th. Slipping into a coma Prosecutor Akilali Balt passed away at 808PM on Sunday, April 3rd. I would love to be able to tell you that justice is being served in the case but this is Mindanao after all where political killings are a part of the local landscape. Though officialy still empaneled the DOJ investigative team isn't doing much these days, having reverted to their earlier duties. The driver of the motorcycle, Marcelino S. Raguinot is still missing and presumed to have been killed by the Mangudadatus. Likewise with the owner of the motorcycle, Asma Samaon, though he played no direct role in the killing.
At 830PM on July 1st loitering residents saw two men riding tandem on a black Honda XRM turn off of the Mamasapano P
Roundabout (traffic circle) and drive slowly past them in Barangay Poblacion in Maguindanao Province's municipality of Shariff Aguak. The dirt acess road off of Isulan-Cotabato National Hiway led to a large compound holding al Khariah Mosque, generally referred to as Shariff Aguak's "Grand Mosque." On the right side of the compound sits the modest but comfortable home of Bai Galema Ampatuan Olimpaya, who besides being a daughter of the infamous clan patriarch Andal Ampatuan Sr., is also a Municipal Councilor in the town of Shariff Saydona Mustapha. Those same residents saw the two men dismount from their motorcycle inside the mosque compound while carrying a burlap rice sack containing a bulky object before the two men hurried next door to the Ampatuan home.
The men then unsuccessfully tried breaking into Councilor Ampatuan Olimpaya's home before getting spooked and quickly returning to the compound. There they deposited the rice sack on the right side of the mosque's facade and left just as the mosque's caretaker had been alerted by one of the curious onlookers. 27 year old caretaker Aminodin Arsad Satal, originally from Lanao del Sur Province had recently assumed his position as a favour to his father, the mosque's Imam, or cleric. Imam Satar had grown apprehensive over having such a high ranking member of the Ampatuan Clan living next door to the mosque. As Aminodin Satar came upon the rice sack he approached it but when he was still within a meter of the sack the IED, or Improvised Explosive Device (as in "bomb") inside it detonated. Fashioned from an 81MM mortar shell with a Nokia 5510 cellphone as the trigger it left a 30 centimeter deep crater in the asphalt in front of the facade and pockmarks all over the front exterior. Aminodin Arsad Satar was killed instantly.
At the heart of the aforementioned "weapons case" lodged against Mayor Reshal Santiago Ampatuan was SWAT, or Saviour Weapons and Tactics Security, owned by Cotabato City's Jesus "J.V," Martinez. Martinez is the scion of one of Cotabato City's oldest Christian families, his ancestors having moved there in the middle of the 19th Century. Marrying into the Ampatuan Clan, with the mandatory conversion to Islam, he parlayed a small fortune inherited from his parents into a considerable one reliant upon political patronage. Centering his small empire on Cotabato City's De Mazenod Street he left the day to day affairs to his extended family and spent most of his time in Davao City.
On August 2nd a motorcycle rigged with a powerful IED was parked in front of Martinez's "SWAT Gun Store" on Quezon Avenue, just around the corner from De Mazenod Street. Unfortunately the 3 story building also housed a pharmacy and a number of other businesses as well. Even more unfortunately, when that IED detonated just after 8PM hapless passerby took the brunt of the explosion. 14 people were hit, including a 5 year old girl. One of those 14, photographer Jimmy Ali was killed instantly. The device consisted of a 60MM mortar shell and a Nokia 5510 cellphone trigger.
On August 6th the same attackers took aim at Martinez's "SWAT Security Agency," located inside a residential compound owned by Martinez on De Mazenod Street. At 740PM two men riding tandem on a single motorcycle pulled parallel to the compound's outer wall. The passenger then dismounted, threw an M67 fragmentation grenade into the compound, re-mounted and the two calmly rode off just as the grenade detonated with a thunderous blast. Fortuitously noone was hit in that explosion despite one of Martinez's brothers in law having been inside the security agency office just 2 meters from where the grenade made contact. Aside from all windows in the building being shattered there were no casualties as he had been in a back office and so emerged unscathed. Though Martinez doesn't live in the compound some of his extended family does and so the last attack literally hit closer to home.
Predictably the authorities are busy tripping over each other in the mad race to make fools of themselves. Cotabato City's CPO pinned the first attack on...Jemmah Islamiyyah, or JI. DIPO-West, or Directorate of Integrated Police Operations-Western Sector Director Senior Superintendant Felicisimo Khu concurred. The AFP, or Armed Forces of the Philippines, via the 6ID, or 6th Infantry Division Spokesperson put the blame on the "MILF SOG," or Special Operations Group and its bogeyman, the Afghan-trained Basit Usman. Within two days though they began inching away from their semi-retarded pronouncements as Cotabato City Administrator, attorney Cynthia Guiani Sayadi took to the airwaves and blamed it all on "personal grudges" against Mr. Martinez. However in her mind those "grudges" related to Martinez having recently sold tracts of land in Maguindanao Province and having failed to share in the profits with his large extended family.
When one realises that Ms. Sayadi herself has also married into the Ampatuan Clan (and converted to Islam as well though it isn't required of females) the story becomes clearer. Linking the attacks to the Datu Unsay weapons case against Mayor Reshal Santiago Ampatuan and the feud with the Mangudadatu Clan will only bring closer scrutiny to the whole sordid affair and therefore prevent retaliatory action...like the August 15th assasination attempt against Maguindanao Governor Esmael "Toto" Mangudadatu via that powerful carbomb in Tacurong City.
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Political Developments for the Third Quarter of 2011, Part I: Governor Mangudadatu Survives Assasination Attempt
August 15th, 2011 marked Governor Esmael "Toto" Mangudadatu's 43rd birthday. Because it took place during the Muslim holiday of Ramadan, where adherants fast during daylight hours the Governor held a low key gift giving celebration that afternoon at his residential compound in the Mangudadatu Clan stronghold of Bualan, in Maguindanao Province, the municipality that now serves as the provincial capital. The main celebration though was set to be held after sundown at the Governor's Genalin Forest Garden Resort just across the provincial border, in Sultan Kudarat Province's Tacurong City, seat of clan patriarch, ex-Congressman Pax S.Mangudadatu.
The Governor was in great spirits having just that morning received word from his attorneys that the Department of Justice, or DOJ had just trashed the most pressing of three murder charges against him. The case in question revolves around the February 11th, 2010 shooting death of 41 year old Tomano Kagi Kamendan, a resident of Shariff Aguak, the former capital of Maguindanao Province. Kamendan, an Ampatuan Clansman had spent the afternoon at Gaisano South Citiland Mall [sic] on Ilustre Street in Davao City shopping with his wife Natividad de Arce Kamendan. The couple had made their way up to the mall's fourth floor in search of a dress for their 5 year old daughter. Mrs. Kamendan was four months pregnant and the day was wearing on fast her so that they agreed that they would leave after buying the dress.
Finally picking out a sundress the tired couple walked to counter #80 and prepared to pay for their purchase. Examining the dress Mrs. Kamendan only looked up when her usually talkative husband stopped abruptly in mid-sentence. Directly in front of them stood Esmael Mangudadatu, waiting to purchase clothes for his two daughters who together with him stood enveloped by four bodyguards, two of whom were uniformed policemen carrying sidearms. Tomano Kamendan had good reason to be nervous. Afterall, his uncle Andal Ampatuan Sr. And several other clan members were currently in jail for having killed Mangudadatu's wife Genalin along with his sister and other assorted family members less than 90 days earlier. As Mrs. Kamendan first noticed Mangudadatu he turned around slowly and locked eyes with her husband.
Mangudadatu, not missing a beat, asked Kamendan how his uncle Andal Sr. was adjusting to life on Luzon, an obvious dig at the clan patriatch's having been incarcerated over the killings. Kamendan nervously offered that he hadn't spoken to his uncle since December. Mrs. Kamendan tried to help her husband out of an extremely uncomfortable situation by interjecting light heartedly that they were exhausted having been shopping all afternoon. Being a convert to Islam Mrs. Kamendan had spoken in Tagalog, and not Maguindanowan, the tribal language of both her husband and Esmael Mangudadatu. Mangudadatu ignored her attempt at polite diversion and turned his back on the couple. None the wiser his bodyguards pretty much ignored the entire exchange.
Having finished his purchase Mangudadatu began moving away from the counter as the Kamendans gingerly approached. All of a sudden though, Mangudadatu stopped. The cashier, caught unawares, asked Mangudadatu if the Kamendans were with him. To that Mangudadatu repeated her question rhetorically before launching into a tirade about how degenerate and perverted each and every member of the Ampatuan Clan really was. Mrs. Kamendan grabbed her husband's elbow and steered him away from the counter, afraid he might respond and add fuel to the growing fire. She began walking with her husband, away from the embarrasing confrontation but suddenly her husband bolted and began running. It was then that she heard Mangudadatu order his bodyguards to, "Ten bak nu den!" Perhaps thinking that noone would understand Maguindanowan, after all Mrs. Kamendan had spoken in Tagalog, he had just ordered his men to shoot her husband. Now fearing for her own life and the life of her unborn child Mrs. Kamendan rushed towards the nearest door and begged a salesgirl to help her. The quick thinking store employee sheparded the distressed woman into a stockroom where Mrs. Kamendan hid in blind fear.
As Mangudadatu gave the order the two uniformed policemen turned and ran full speed after Tamano Kamendan before one officer, PO1 (Police Officer First Grade) Surab Lintukan Bantas cornered the fleeing man in the kitchenware section. As the police officer drew his 45 caliber pistol Kamendan grabbed the officer's wrist. As the two men wrestled for the pistol they shattered a glass display case spraying glass shards everywhere. As the second officer, PO1 Ibrahim Langalen came upon the melee Kamendan managed to extricate himself and once again tried to flee for his life. Both officers drew down. Musa's 9MM pistol fired three rounds, all failing to connect and all miraculously failing to harm any of the store's hundreds of customers. However Officer Bantas managed to connect with every one of his five rounds, four of which landed in Tamano Kamendan's back.
Naturally the case was reported with hundreds of eyewitnesses having seen it transpire, not to mention the store's CCTV (closed circuit television) having recorded it for posterity so that there was no way to avoid calling it in. The Davao City CPO, or City Police Office registered a report at 730PM. Not long after that then Mayor Duterte himself arrived on the scene. Even in non-election seasons malls are offlimits for weaponry. Guards armed with pump shotguns stand watch s their colleagues frisk each and every patron entering the mall (all malls) while a third guard uses a wand metal detector for redundancy. The only exceptions are uniformed police officers and soldiers who must show proper ID and then sign a special form, or logbook. Moreover, in election seasons COMELEC, the national electoral authority implements nation wide gun bans in which only uniformed personnel who are on duty may carry any manner of weaponry in an attempt to mitigate election related violence. Ergo, Mangudadatu's two civilian bodyguards:
1) James Musa
2) Arnell Alangkat
were unarmed, as mandated by law. The two police officers, attached to Mangudadatu's security detail were deployed out of the ARMM PRO, or Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao Police Regional Office, were legally permitted to bear arms. Still, Mayor Duterte questioned just why the two police officers had felt it necessary to retain their sidearms inside the mall.
Mangudadatu and his four bodyguards reported that while they were at counter #80 they heard Mangudadatu's youngest daughter, age 11, scream. They turned and saw Tamano Kagi Kamendan with his arm wrapped around the girl's neck apprently trying to abduct her. Though Mangudadatu never said a word, much less instruct anyone to shoot, both police officers ran after Kamendan who after realising his attempted abduction would fail did his best to escape by running full speed for the escalator. PO1 Bantas reached Kamendan first, at the kitchenwares section immediately adjacent to the escalator. Kamendan, realising that the gig was up lunged for Bantas' sidearm, a 45 caliber pistol. As they wrestled for the weapon they smashed a display case. Kamendan was able to grab a large shard of glass and attempted to wrest the pistol away from his opponent by repeatedly stabbing the officer's wrist with the shard. Only when PO1 Langalen arrived on scene did Kamendan stop struggling and once again begin running for the escalator. Both officers drew down and fired on the fleeing assailant.
As one easily sees, there is quite a bit of discrepancy between the version supplied by Mangudadatu and his security detail and that offered by the widow and store sales people. Even if we forget that the store personnel have absolutely no vested interest in the outcome of the case we have to admit that the Mangudadatu version is just preposterous. If Tomano Kamendan planned to abduct Mangudadatu's daughter, why bring his pregnant wife? Why choose the fourth floor of an incredibly busy mall, the interior of which is monitored by CCTV and whose exterior entrances are all guarded by men holding pump shotguns? IF it was a crime of passion or an opportunistic crime why pick THAT moment? While the party is directly in front of a cashier? Why do it as the 4 bodyguards are with the girl? It is just too silly to fathom but this was Mangudadatu's response after the Davao City Prosecutor charged the two police officers, and later Mangudadatu himself with murder.
By March however, the Davao City Prosecutor had appointed a three person investigative panel to examine the case a lot more closely and render a recommendation on actual prosecution. The charge against Mangudadatu was then dropped with the Prosecutor's Office remarking that Natividad de Arce Kamendan's original affadavit made no mention of Mangudadatu having ordered his guards to shoot Mr. Kamendan. It was only after she had conferred with her own counsel that she chose to revise her affadavit. Furthermore, her choice in counsel happened to be none other than Philip Pantojan, house counsel for the Ampatuan Clan in local matters. Ergo her revised affadavit was suspect.
Mrs. Kamendan then filed a Motion for Partial Reconsideration with regard to Mangudadatu having been dropped from the case but was unsuccessful in this endeavour having had it denied at the end of April. Still, the case against the police officers remained as is. It wasn't until May of 2011 that Mrs. Kamendan finally submitted a formal withdrawal of her complaint against Mangudadatu, having received a generous "donation" from Mangudadatu, by then sitting as Governor, in her dear departed husband's name. It took the DOJ until August 15th to formally drop all initiatives against Governor Mangudadatu with regard to the murder case. It is assured that both police officers will also beat the case but that in the interim will have to go through the rigamorole of a trial. Philippine Law allows for Self Defense, which is what the two officers are utilising as their defence, but doesn't allow for prosecutorial latitude in such matters. In other words, in the American System after which the Philippine System was fashioned, a prosecutor can make a judgement call if Self Defense is tenable and decline to even present the case to a Grand Jury for indictment. The Philippine System is markedly different not least of all because of its lack of Grand Jury and Indictments. Because the Philippine System also lacks Trial by Jury Self Defense must be judged entirely by the trial judge. In this case the two officers will get their days in Regional Trial Court, or RTC #16, Davao City.
Returning to August 15th, at 330PM the guests at Governor Mangudadatu's compound piled into vehichles for the short ride across the provincial border to his resort in Tacurong City. Leaving in a convoy of 7 vehicles the Governor naturally rode at the head of the line in his armoured van. Entering Tacurong City along Tacurong -Koronadal National Hiway, generaly known as Alunan Hiway, the convoy had just passed Fitmart Department Store, the scene of a bombing just 3 weeks prior when a white Kia Avellana parked in front of the Cherubim Methodist Learning Center, next to the Land Bank of the Philippines and packed with a powerful IED, or Improvised Explosive Device (as in "bomb") fashioned from multiple 105MM Howitzer shells detonated. All that remained of the Kia was its front axle and a partial front quarter, the rest had simply disintegrated.
The explosion took place 7 seconds after the Governor's lead vehicle passed the parked Kia. The third vehicle in the convoy, a black Toyota Fortuner owned by Maguindanao Provincial Board Member Datu Russman "Russ" Sinsuat Sr. took the brunt of the explosion. In fact it was Sinsuat himself who was the most seriously injured of the 5 people in that truck, all of whom sustained moderate to serious wounds. In addition, a triksiad (motorised tricycle used as a taxi) driver, Raffy Parenas of Tacurong City's Purok #9 was killed instantly. A sixth person was wounded as well while riding in the convoy's fourth vehicle. All six of the wounded were rushed to Tacurong City Doctor's Hospital. Sinsuat's son, Datu Russ Jr. had to have his right leg amputated. As the operation was being performed his father was being declared dead, having expired at 1217AM.
Just before the detonation an idling triksiad driver had witnessed a man leaving the Kia and running across the road at full speed. Just after the blast the witness informed a police officer on scene that a man had just gotten out of the Kia and run across the street. A dragnet was quickly thrown up and officers from the CPO, or City Police Office were able to quickly apprehend Datu Karim "Alibara" Masdal, a resident of Guindulungan in Maguindanao Province. After taking him into custody he was rapidly transferred to the custody of Criminal Investigation and Detection Group- Region 12, or CIDG-12. CDIG-12 then immediately implemented a news blackout until today, August 18th, on the arrest citing National Security concerns, hence my not being able to post on the event until today.
A second man, Jay R. Reyes of Cotabato City is listed on the Kia's bill of sale as having purchased the SUV from its previous owner, Maureen Ella Macasindil, of Davao City, a resident of Barangay Datu Luho in Maa District. Ms.Macasandil claims that two of her employees actually handled the transaction for her so that she never actually saw the person in question. CIDG is currently interrogating both employees while remaining cognisant that Ms. Macasindil spent a number of years living in Maguindanao Province. A warrant has been taken out on "Mr. Reyes" but the name is an alias. Searches at the LTO, or Land Transportation Office, Civil Registry, COMELEC Voter Registries, and the Social Security rolls have all failed to turn up anyone with that name or any variation on the name. Masdal, the man fingered as the man who had been sitting in the Kia meanwhile, denies any involvement and hasn't provided a shred of intelligence. Knowing the type of interrogation he would be subjected to I reckon he is merely a patsy hired to drive the Kia to Tacurong. The IED was triggered by cellphone so that the fact that Masdal ran across the hiway just before the detonation doesn't neccessarily relate to his having fore knowledge of the bombing. Co-incidentally, perhaps, an IED was recovered in Guindulungan this past Saturday, August 13th though its signature doesn't match the carbomb in Tacurong City.
For most people considering the matter the obvious culprit would be the Ampatuan Clan. Afterall, the Governor's late wife Genalin, namesake of that aforementioned resort in Tacurong City, was but one of 58 people murdered by the Ampatuans on November 23rd, 2009 when another Mangudadatu convoy was waylaid en route to the previous provincial capital, Shariff Aguak. That infamous act of violence, the so called "Maguindanao Massacre" is what caused then President Gloria M.Arroyo to declare the still extant State of Emergency (with nearly a week of actual Martial Law just after the incident). Though this latest act of violence IS related to the now two year old blood feud between the two clans it is NOT directly related to the Maguindanao Massacre.
The Massacre it should be recalled, took place because of Ampatuan paranoia in the face of Mangudadatu's insistence on fielding his candidacy in the May 2010 Gubneratorial Race in Maguindanao Province. The two clans had been firmly allied since the 18th Century when together they led a victorious raid on the Spanish Fort in the Cotabato Basin. Slaughtering all survivors the clans' alliance was literally sealed in blood. Since that time they have heavily intermarried with one another and rarely have not been in full agreement. Though rooted in the same province, Maguindanao, the Mangudadatus wisely chose to build their powerbase in the adjacent province of Sultan Kudarat and so avoided direct competition. At the beginning of 2009 Esmael, the current Governor, but then merely the Vice Mayor of Buluan convinced patriarch Pax, his paternal uncle, to back his run for Governor of Maguindanao.
With a bit of internal debate Uncle Pax gave his blessing and Esmael, accompanied by a few dozen well armed members of the clan paramilitary, known as the "Buayan sa Ranao," or Crocodiles of the Lake (their hometown Bualan sits on a lake of the same name), paid a visit to the residential compound of the Ampatuan Clan patriarch, Andal Ampatuan Sr., currently incarcerated at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City, on Luzon, for the Massacre, but who at that point had just resigned as Governor of Maguindanao after the Supreme Court dissolved the province he had created out of a Maguindanowan Congressional District in 2008, the province of Shariff Kabansuan citing Constitutional issues. Though obstensibly out of office, he had son Zaldy Uy Ampatuan, then Governor of ARMM, or Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao but now jailed along with his father, appoint youngest son Sajid Islam Ampatuan as OIC, or Officer in Charge Governor of Maguindanao.
Andal Sr.'s endgame was to keep the seat warm for the May of 2010 Election when he would have his other son, and namesake, Andal Jr.run for election. The verb "run" is not quite apt since the clan controlled most municipalities in the province and so dictated who ran, and therefore who won. Andal Sr. wasn't so bothered that Esmael Mangudadatu dared to run for the Governor's seat as much as he was angered, neigh infuriated that he would dare to appear at his doorstep with dozens of men carrying long arms. THIS was the impetus for the Massacre.
Though in stir the clan's hold on the province, though surely not as firm as it had been prior to the Massacre was still strong. Under Andal Sr.'s direction clan members ran for key posts. One post retained was the mayoralty of the municipality of Datu Unsay. Named for Andal Jr.'s nickname, the town was specifically created for him by his father, Andal Sr. With Jr. in jail one of his wives, Bai Reshal Santiago Ampatuan ran in his stead. Not suprisingly she emerged victoriously. Almost from the start she dealt with a very small but vocal dissident faction backed by the Mangudadatus. With the shakeup in the local powerbase all PNP, or Philippine National Police serving in Maguindanao Province were transferred far and wide. Though most of the rank and file ultimately returned to their original positions the command structure was permanently disassembled. With new commanders Governor Mangudadatu was able to groom his own loyal following. One such commander who planted himself firmly in the Governor's camp was Director Senior Superintendent of the Maguindanao PPO, or Police Provincial Office, Marcelo Pintac.
On Janurary 10th, 2010 Director Pintac jotted off an official memorandum to the ARMM PRO, or Police Regional of the ARMM, is under the ARMM PRO AOR, or Area of Responsibility (as in "jurisdiction"). In this memorandum the Director accused Mayor Reshall Ampatuan of dereliction of duty for rank absenteeism. According to the Director the Mayor had not shown up for a single day's work since July 15th, 2010. The memorandum is extremely note worthy because such matterss are no concern at all of any police official though technically, any civil servant can formally complain about any other civil servant. Still, it was so unusual that the Director of ARMM PRO simply filed it away and did nothing more.
Curiously, two members of Datu Unsay's dissident faction:
1) Pata Usman, age 52
2) Abdulhamid Lumena, age 32
chose Janurary 13th as the day to make a stand, knowing that in doing so they would provoke a serious confrontation with either the Mayor or her supporters. The two men hung banners on the outside walls of the municipal compound on which they appealed to not only Governor Mangudadatu but President Aquino himself to intervene in the face of what they maintained was rank corruption in the October of 2010 Barangay and SK (Sangguniang Kabataan, or Youth Council) Elections. Mayor Ampatuan, who contrary to PPO Director Marcelo Pintac's claim WAS working quickly had municipal workers tear down the banners.
Having choreographed their actions with Mangudadatu's camp the two protestors immediately entered the compound and once inside the MPO, or Municipal Police Office reported the incident so that it would be officialy recorded. Having been notified before the protestors had even raised their banners PPO Director Pintac had already deployed two of his senior men:
1) Senior Inspector Greg Soliba, Commanding Officer of the PPO's PSCs, or Public Safety Companies (formerly known as PMGs, or Police Mobile Groups)
2) Senior Inspector Lino Capellan
who rendevouzed with a small detachment from the 45IB (Infantry Battalion), to use as armed backup. Speeding from Shariff Aguak, the former provincial capital which still houses most provincial government offices. Arriving at the municipal compound the two Inspectors and they military backup conferred with the two protestors. According to Senior Inspector Soliba they were then surrounded by eight well armed men and their commander, members of the Mayor's security detail.
According to Soliba he defused the tense situation by convincing the commander, Mayoral Aide Tungko Zakala, to accompany him inside the MPO so as to verify the eight armed guards' permits to carry weapons. Once inside the MPO Soliba claims that he was able to verify that in fact, the eight guards were all employed by SWAT (Saviour Weapons and Tactics) Security Agency in Cotabato City. Moreover Soliba says, he ascertained that the company's Temporary Liscence to Operate had expired exactly one week previously on Janurary 6th, 2011. At that point Soliba says, he had the soldiers from the 45IB confiscate two M653s (mini-M16s) and six MP5s. The eight guards, all local Maguindanowan Tribesmen under the employ of SWAT were then released to the town's Information Officer, Paisal Sulaik.
At the same time, the Ampatuans aren't the only group on the Governor's dancecard, the Mangudadatu paramilitary has entered into a conflict with the MILF and its military arm, the BIAF, otr the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces in the clan stronghold of Buluan. I covered this flare up in my entry, "MILF Armed Contacts for the Second Quarter of 2011
Mayor Reshal Santiago Ampatuan did not just roll over. On Janurary 20th she went to the media and complained of dirty politicking on the part of PPO Director Marcelo Pintac. When her guards were forcibly disarmed, at gunpoint she added, she formally submitted a request to Director Pintac to provide her with two uniformed and armed police officers. Pintac ignored her request. Mayor Ampatuan correctly noted that by law she is entitled to the two officers and that Pintac's actions, and conversely his lack of action thereafter prove that the Director is operating with a political agenda. Pintac's response? "Para sa akin pantay ako sa lahat. Sanay kasi yan sila na lahat ng gusto nila masusunod. Nung sila ba ang namahala sa Maguindanao naisip ba nila ang mga ginigawa sa tao di na maganda? Idiomatically translated, Director Pintac denied any unfair treatment saying that he treats all people fairly BUT then immediately followed with, "They (the Ampatuan Clan) are so used to getting what they want but when they were in power here in Maguindanao, what did they ever do for anyone?" Nah, no bias there, right?
Then Pintac promptly filed a formal complaint with Magiuindanao Provincial Board in which he charged the Mayor with Illegal Possesion of Weapons, Illegal Possesion of Ammunition, and Absenteeism. The Provincial Board, or Sangguniang Panlalawigan tossed the complaint in the trash and derided Pintac for wasting their time with it. Co-incidentally this move was the first open indication that the Mangudadatu alliance with Vice Governor Ibrahim "Dustin" Veloso Mastura had fractured, with Vice Governor Mastura steering the Board on that issue. At the birthday party on August 15th Mastura was not in attendance signalling that the rift is major.
I will continue with the conclusion of this entry in a subsequent post utilising the same title, with the addition, "Part 2."
The Governor was in great spirits having just that morning received word from his attorneys that the Department of Justice, or DOJ had just trashed the most pressing of three murder charges against him. The case in question revolves around the February 11th, 2010 shooting death of 41 year old Tomano Kagi Kamendan, a resident of Shariff Aguak, the former capital of Maguindanao Province. Kamendan, an Ampatuan Clansman had spent the afternoon at Gaisano South Citiland Mall [sic] on Ilustre Street in Davao City shopping with his wife Natividad de Arce Kamendan. The couple had made their way up to the mall's fourth floor in search of a dress for their 5 year old daughter. Mrs. Kamendan was four months pregnant and the day was wearing on fast her so that they agreed that they would leave after buying the dress.
Finally picking out a sundress the tired couple walked to counter #80 and prepared to pay for their purchase. Examining the dress Mrs. Kamendan only looked up when her usually talkative husband stopped abruptly in mid-sentence. Directly in front of them stood Esmael Mangudadatu, waiting to purchase clothes for his two daughters who together with him stood enveloped by four bodyguards, two of whom were uniformed policemen carrying sidearms. Tomano Kamendan had good reason to be nervous. Afterall, his uncle Andal Ampatuan Sr. And several other clan members were currently in jail for having killed Mangudadatu's wife Genalin along with his sister and other assorted family members less than 90 days earlier. As Mrs. Kamendan first noticed Mangudadatu he turned around slowly and locked eyes with her husband.
Mangudadatu, not missing a beat, asked Kamendan how his uncle Andal Sr. was adjusting to life on Luzon, an obvious dig at the clan patriatch's having been incarcerated over the killings. Kamendan nervously offered that he hadn't spoken to his uncle since December. Mrs. Kamendan tried to help her husband out of an extremely uncomfortable situation by interjecting light heartedly that they were exhausted having been shopping all afternoon. Being a convert to Islam Mrs. Kamendan had spoken in Tagalog, and not Maguindanowan, the tribal language of both her husband and Esmael Mangudadatu. Mangudadatu ignored her attempt at polite diversion and turned his back on the couple. None the wiser his bodyguards pretty much ignored the entire exchange.
Having finished his purchase Mangudadatu began moving away from the counter as the Kamendans gingerly approached. All of a sudden though, Mangudadatu stopped. The cashier, caught unawares, asked Mangudadatu if the Kamendans were with him. To that Mangudadatu repeated her question rhetorically before launching into a tirade about how degenerate and perverted each and every member of the Ampatuan Clan really was. Mrs. Kamendan grabbed her husband's elbow and steered him away from the counter, afraid he might respond and add fuel to the growing fire. She began walking with her husband, away from the embarrasing confrontation but suddenly her husband bolted and began running. It was then that she heard Mangudadatu order his bodyguards to, "Ten bak nu den!" Perhaps thinking that noone would understand Maguindanowan, after all Mrs. Kamendan had spoken in Tagalog, he had just ordered his men to shoot her husband. Now fearing for her own life and the life of her unborn child Mrs. Kamendan rushed towards the nearest door and begged a salesgirl to help her. The quick thinking store employee sheparded the distressed woman into a stockroom where Mrs. Kamendan hid in blind fear.
As Mangudadatu gave the order the two uniformed policemen turned and ran full speed after Tamano Kamendan before one officer, PO1 (Police Officer First Grade) Surab Lintukan Bantas cornered the fleeing man in the kitchenware section. As the police officer drew his 45 caliber pistol Kamendan grabbed the officer's wrist. As the two men wrestled for the pistol they shattered a glass display case spraying glass shards everywhere. As the second officer, PO1 Ibrahim Langalen came upon the melee Kamendan managed to extricate himself and once again tried to flee for his life. Both officers drew down. Musa's 9MM pistol fired three rounds, all failing to connect and all miraculously failing to harm any of the store's hundreds of customers. However Officer Bantas managed to connect with every one of his five rounds, four of which landed in Tamano Kamendan's back.
Naturally the case was reported with hundreds of eyewitnesses having seen it transpire, not to mention the store's CCTV (closed circuit television) having recorded it for posterity so that there was no way to avoid calling it in. The Davao City CPO, or City Police Office registered a report at 730PM. Not long after that then Mayor Duterte himself arrived on the scene. Even in non-election seasons malls are offlimits for weaponry. Guards armed with pump shotguns stand watch s their colleagues frisk each and every patron entering the mall (all malls) while a third guard uses a wand metal detector for redundancy. The only exceptions are uniformed police officers and soldiers who must show proper ID and then sign a special form, or logbook. Moreover, in election seasons COMELEC, the national electoral authority implements nation wide gun bans in which only uniformed personnel who are on duty may carry any manner of weaponry in an attempt to mitigate election related violence. Ergo, Mangudadatu's two civilian bodyguards:
1) James Musa
2) Arnell Alangkat
were unarmed, as mandated by law. The two police officers, attached to Mangudadatu's security detail were deployed out of the ARMM PRO, or Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao Police Regional Office, were legally permitted to bear arms. Still, Mayor Duterte questioned just why the two police officers had felt it necessary to retain their sidearms inside the mall.
Mangudadatu and his four bodyguards reported that while they were at counter #80 they heard Mangudadatu's youngest daughter, age 11, scream. They turned and saw Tamano Kagi Kamendan with his arm wrapped around the girl's neck apprently trying to abduct her. Though Mangudadatu never said a word, much less instruct anyone to shoot, both police officers ran after Kamendan who after realising his attempted abduction would fail did his best to escape by running full speed for the escalator. PO1 Bantas reached Kamendan first, at the kitchenwares section immediately adjacent to the escalator. Kamendan, realising that the gig was up lunged for Bantas' sidearm, a 45 caliber pistol. As they wrestled for the weapon they smashed a display case. Kamendan was able to grab a large shard of glass and attempted to wrest the pistol away from his opponent by repeatedly stabbing the officer's wrist with the shard. Only when PO1 Langalen arrived on scene did Kamendan stop struggling and once again begin running for the escalator. Both officers drew down and fired on the fleeing assailant.
As one easily sees, there is quite a bit of discrepancy between the version supplied by Mangudadatu and his security detail and that offered by the widow and store sales people. Even if we forget that the store personnel have absolutely no vested interest in the outcome of the case we have to admit that the Mangudadatu version is just preposterous. If Tomano Kamendan planned to abduct Mangudadatu's daughter, why bring his pregnant wife? Why choose the fourth floor of an incredibly busy mall, the interior of which is monitored by CCTV and whose exterior entrances are all guarded by men holding pump shotguns? IF it was a crime of passion or an opportunistic crime why pick THAT moment? While the party is directly in front of a cashier? Why do it as the 4 bodyguards are with the girl? It is just too silly to fathom but this was Mangudadatu's response after the Davao City Prosecutor charged the two police officers, and later Mangudadatu himself with murder.
By March however, the Davao City Prosecutor had appointed a three person investigative panel to examine the case a lot more closely and render a recommendation on actual prosecution. The charge against Mangudadatu was then dropped with the Prosecutor's Office remarking that Natividad de Arce Kamendan's original affadavit made no mention of Mangudadatu having ordered his guards to shoot Mr. Kamendan. It was only after she had conferred with her own counsel that she chose to revise her affadavit. Furthermore, her choice in counsel happened to be none other than Philip Pantojan, house counsel for the Ampatuan Clan in local matters. Ergo her revised affadavit was suspect.
Mrs. Kamendan then filed a Motion for Partial Reconsideration with regard to Mangudadatu having been dropped from the case but was unsuccessful in this endeavour having had it denied at the end of April. Still, the case against the police officers remained as is. It wasn't until May of 2011 that Mrs. Kamendan finally submitted a formal withdrawal of her complaint against Mangudadatu, having received a generous "donation" from Mangudadatu, by then sitting as Governor, in her dear departed husband's name. It took the DOJ until August 15th to formally drop all initiatives against Governor Mangudadatu with regard to the murder case. It is assured that both police officers will also beat the case but that in the interim will have to go through the rigamorole of a trial. Philippine Law allows for Self Defense, which is what the two officers are utilising as their defence, but doesn't allow for prosecutorial latitude in such matters. In other words, in the American System after which the Philippine System was fashioned, a prosecutor can make a judgement call if Self Defense is tenable and decline to even present the case to a Grand Jury for indictment. The Philippine System is markedly different not least of all because of its lack of Grand Jury and Indictments. Because the Philippine System also lacks Trial by Jury Self Defense must be judged entirely by the trial judge. In this case the two officers will get their days in Regional Trial Court, or RTC #16, Davao City.
Returning to August 15th, at 330PM the guests at Governor Mangudadatu's compound piled into vehichles for the short ride across the provincial border to his resort in Tacurong City. Leaving in a convoy of 7 vehicles the Governor naturally rode at the head of the line in his armoured van. Entering Tacurong City along Tacurong -Koronadal National Hiway, generaly known as Alunan Hiway, the convoy had just passed Fitmart Department Store, the scene of a bombing just 3 weeks prior when a white Kia Avellana parked in front of the Cherubim Methodist Learning Center, next to the Land Bank of the Philippines and packed with a powerful IED, or Improvised Explosive Device (as in "bomb") fashioned from multiple 105MM Howitzer shells detonated. All that remained of the Kia was its front axle and a partial front quarter, the rest had simply disintegrated.
The explosion took place 7 seconds after the Governor's lead vehicle passed the parked Kia. The third vehicle in the convoy, a black Toyota Fortuner owned by Maguindanao Provincial Board Member Datu Russman "Russ" Sinsuat Sr. took the brunt of the explosion. In fact it was Sinsuat himself who was the most seriously injured of the 5 people in that truck, all of whom sustained moderate to serious wounds. In addition, a triksiad (motorised tricycle used as a taxi) driver, Raffy Parenas of Tacurong City's Purok #9 was killed instantly. A sixth person was wounded as well while riding in the convoy's fourth vehicle. All six of the wounded were rushed to Tacurong City Doctor's Hospital. Sinsuat's son, Datu Russ Jr. had to have his right leg amputated. As the operation was being performed his father was being declared dead, having expired at 1217AM.
Just before the detonation an idling triksiad driver had witnessed a man leaving the Kia and running across the road at full speed. Just after the blast the witness informed a police officer on scene that a man had just gotten out of the Kia and run across the street. A dragnet was quickly thrown up and officers from the CPO, or City Police Office were able to quickly apprehend Datu Karim "Alibara" Masdal, a resident of Guindulungan in Maguindanao Province. After taking him into custody he was rapidly transferred to the custody of Criminal Investigation and Detection Group- Region 12, or CIDG-12. CDIG-12 then immediately implemented a news blackout until today, August 18th, on the arrest citing National Security concerns, hence my not being able to post on the event until today.
A second man, Jay R. Reyes of Cotabato City is listed on the Kia's bill of sale as having purchased the SUV from its previous owner, Maureen Ella Macasindil, of Davao City, a resident of Barangay Datu Luho in Maa District. Ms.Macasandil claims that two of her employees actually handled the transaction for her so that she never actually saw the person in question. CIDG is currently interrogating both employees while remaining cognisant that Ms. Macasindil spent a number of years living in Maguindanao Province. A warrant has been taken out on "Mr. Reyes" but the name is an alias. Searches at the LTO, or Land Transportation Office, Civil Registry, COMELEC Voter Registries, and the Social Security rolls have all failed to turn up anyone with that name or any variation on the name. Masdal, the man fingered as the man who had been sitting in the Kia meanwhile, denies any involvement and hasn't provided a shred of intelligence. Knowing the type of interrogation he would be subjected to I reckon he is merely a patsy hired to drive the Kia to Tacurong. The IED was triggered by cellphone so that the fact that Masdal ran across the hiway just before the detonation doesn't neccessarily relate to his having fore knowledge of the bombing. Co-incidentally, perhaps, an IED was recovered in Guindulungan this past Saturday, August 13th though its signature doesn't match the carbomb in Tacurong City.
For most people considering the matter the obvious culprit would be the Ampatuan Clan. Afterall, the Governor's late wife Genalin, namesake of that aforementioned resort in Tacurong City, was but one of 58 people murdered by the Ampatuans on November 23rd, 2009 when another Mangudadatu convoy was waylaid en route to the previous provincial capital, Shariff Aguak. That infamous act of violence, the so called "Maguindanao Massacre" is what caused then President Gloria M.Arroyo to declare the still extant State of Emergency (with nearly a week of actual Martial Law just after the incident). Though this latest act of violence IS related to the now two year old blood feud between the two clans it is NOT directly related to the Maguindanao Massacre.
The Massacre it should be recalled, took place because of Ampatuan paranoia in the face of Mangudadatu's insistence on fielding his candidacy in the May 2010 Gubneratorial Race in Maguindanao Province. The two clans had been firmly allied since the 18th Century when together they led a victorious raid on the Spanish Fort in the Cotabato Basin. Slaughtering all survivors the clans' alliance was literally sealed in blood. Since that time they have heavily intermarried with one another and rarely have not been in full agreement. Though rooted in the same province, Maguindanao, the Mangudadatus wisely chose to build their powerbase in the adjacent province of Sultan Kudarat and so avoided direct competition. At the beginning of 2009 Esmael, the current Governor, but then merely the Vice Mayor of Buluan convinced patriarch Pax, his paternal uncle, to back his run for Governor of Maguindanao.
With a bit of internal debate Uncle Pax gave his blessing and Esmael, accompanied by a few dozen well armed members of the clan paramilitary, known as the "Buayan sa Ranao," or Crocodiles of the Lake (their hometown Bualan sits on a lake of the same name), paid a visit to the residential compound of the Ampatuan Clan patriarch, Andal Ampatuan Sr., currently incarcerated at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City, on Luzon, for the Massacre, but who at that point had just resigned as Governor of Maguindanao after the Supreme Court dissolved the province he had created out of a Maguindanowan Congressional District in 2008, the province of Shariff Kabansuan citing Constitutional issues. Though obstensibly out of office, he had son Zaldy Uy Ampatuan, then Governor of ARMM, or Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao but now jailed along with his father, appoint youngest son Sajid Islam Ampatuan as OIC, or Officer in Charge Governor of Maguindanao.
Andal Sr.'s endgame was to keep the seat warm for the May of 2010 Election when he would have his other son, and namesake, Andal Jr.run for election. The verb "run" is not quite apt since the clan controlled most municipalities in the province and so dictated who ran, and therefore who won. Andal Sr. wasn't so bothered that Esmael Mangudadatu dared to run for the Governor's seat as much as he was angered, neigh infuriated that he would dare to appear at his doorstep with dozens of men carrying long arms. THIS was the impetus for the Massacre.
Though in stir the clan's hold on the province, though surely not as firm as it had been prior to the Massacre was still strong. Under Andal Sr.'s direction clan members ran for key posts. One post retained was the mayoralty of the municipality of Datu Unsay. Named for Andal Jr.'s nickname, the town was specifically created for him by his father, Andal Sr. With Jr. in jail one of his wives, Bai Reshal Santiago Ampatuan ran in his stead. Not suprisingly she emerged victoriously. Almost from the start she dealt with a very small but vocal dissident faction backed by the Mangudadatus. With the shakeup in the local powerbase all PNP, or Philippine National Police serving in Maguindanao Province were transferred far and wide. Though most of the rank and file ultimately returned to their original positions the command structure was permanently disassembled. With new commanders Governor Mangudadatu was able to groom his own loyal following. One such commander who planted himself firmly in the Governor's camp was Director Senior Superintendent of the Maguindanao PPO, or Police Provincial Office, Marcelo Pintac.
On Janurary 10th, 2010 Director Pintac jotted off an official memorandum to the ARMM PRO, or Police Regional of the ARMM, is under the ARMM PRO AOR, or Area of Responsibility (as in "jurisdiction"). In this memorandum the Director accused Mayor Reshall Ampatuan of dereliction of duty for rank absenteeism. According to the Director the Mayor had not shown up for a single day's work since July 15th, 2010. The memorandum is extremely note worthy because such matterss are no concern at all of any police official though technically, any civil servant can formally complain about any other civil servant. Still, it was so unusual that the Director of ARMM PRO simply filed it away and did nothing more.
Curiously, two members of Datu Unsay's dissident faction:
1) Pata Usman, age 52
2) Abdulhamid Lumena, age 32
chose Janurary 13th as the day to make a stand, knowing that in doing so they would provoke a serious confrontation with either the Mayor or her supporters. The two men hung banners on the outside walls of the municipal compound on which they appealed to not only Governor Mangudadatu but President Aquino himself to intervene in the face of what they maintained was rank corruption in the October of 2010 Barangay and SK (Sangguniang Kabataan, or Youth Council) Elections. Mayor Ampatuan, who contrary to PPO Director Marcelo Pintac's claim WAS working quickly had municipal workers tear down the banners.
Having choreographed their actions with Mangudadatu's camp the two protestors immediately entered the compound and once inside the MPO, or Municipal Police Office reported the incident so that it would be officialy recorded. Having been notified before the protestors had even raised their banners PPO Director Pintac had already deployed two of his senior men:
1) Senior Inspector Greg Soliba, Commanding Officer of the PPO's PSCs, or Public Safety Companies (formerly known as PMGs, or Police Mobile Groups)
2) Senior Inspector Lino Capellan
who rendevouzed with a small detachment from the 45IB (Infantry Battalion), to use as armed backup. Speeding from Shariff Aguak, the former provincial capital which still houses most provincial government offices. Arriving at the municipal compound the two Inspectors and they military backup conferred with the two protestors. According to Senior Inspector Soliba they were then surrounded by eight well armed men and their commander, members of the Mayor's security detail.
According to Soliba he defused the tense situation by convincing the commander, Mayoral Aide Tungko Zakala, to accompany him inside the MPO so as to verify the eight armed guards' permits to carry weapons. Once inside the MPO Soliba claims that he was able to verify that in fact, the eight guards were all employed by SWAT (Saviour Weapons and Tactics) Security Agency in Cotabato City. Moreover Soliba says, he ascertained that the company's Temporary Liscence to Operate had expired exactly one week previously on Janurary 6th, 2011. At that point Soliba says, he had the soldiers from the 45IB confiscate two M653s (mini-M16s) and six MP5s. The eight guards, all local Maguindanowan Tribesmen under the employ of SWAT were then released to the town's Information Officer, Paisal Sulaik.
At the same time, the Ampatuans aren't the only group on the Governor's dancecard, the Mangudadatu paramilitary has entered into a conflict with the MILF and its military arm, the BIAF, otr the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces in the clan stronghold of Buluan. I covered this flare up in my entry, "MILF Armed Contacts for the Second Quarter of 2011
Mayor Reshal Santiago Ampatuan did not just roll over. On Janurary 20th she went to the media and complained of dirty politicking on the part of PPO Director Marcelo Pintac. When her guards were forcibly disarmed, at gunpoint she added, she formally submitted a request to Director Pintac to provide her with two uniformed and armed police officers. Pintac ignored her request. Mayor Ampatuan correctly noted that by law she is entitled to the two officers and that Pintac's actions, and conversely his lack of action thereafter prove that the Director is operating with a political agenda. Pintac's response? "Para sa akin pantay ako sa lahat. Sanay kasi yan sila na lahat ng gusto nila masusunod. Nung sila ba ang namahala sa Maguindanao naisip ba nila ang mga ginigawa sa tao di na maganda? Idiomatically translated, Director Pintac denied any unfair treatment saying that he treats all people fairly BUT then immediately followed with, "They (the Ampatuan Clan) are so used to getting what they want but when they were in power here in Maguindanao, what did they ever do for anyone?" Nah, no bias there, right?
Then Pintac promptly filed a formal complaint with Magiuindanao Provincial Board in which he charged the Mayor with Illegal Possesion of Weapons, Illegal Possesion of Ammunition, and Absenteeism. The Provincial Board, or Sangguniang Panlalawigan tossed the complaint in the trash and derided Pintac for wasting their time with it. Co-incidentally this move was the first open indication that the Mangudadatu alliance with Vice Governor Ibrahim "Dustin" Veloso Mastura had fractured, with Vice Governor Mastura steering the Board on that issue. At the birthday party on August 15th Mastura was not in attendance signalling that the rift is major.
I will continue with the conclusion of this entry in a subsequent post utilising the same title, with the addition, "Part 2."
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