By Jong Cadion
http://news.pecojon.ph/?p=1732
http://news.pecojon.ph/?p=1732
ZAMBOANGA
CITY, Southern Philippines – The clash between the military and suspected
members of the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) in Sumisip, Basilan earlier this month is
exacerbating the island province’s already burgeoning problem of internal
displacement.
A report from the United Nations
(UN) Protection Cluster Mindanao shows that 1,093 families from two Basilan
towns, totalling 5,465 persons, left their homes after a previous round of
hostilities early in July. And, since “the tension is still high,” they have
yet to return.
Of that number, 966 families,
representing 4830 persons, come from Sumisip where, last Aug. 15, a 30-minute
encounter killed one and injured four from the military and a still
undetermined number of casualties or injuries on the part of the suspected ASG
members.
“Children and women are suffering
from fear, insecurity brought by the displacement and frequent movement. (There
are) no evacuation camps,” read the Protection Cluster Mindanao that was report
released two weeks before the latest skirmish.
The people, the report added, are
“staying in public markets” and “need beddings, hygiene kits and shelter
support.” There is “no adequate toilets to serve all IDPs (Internally Displaced
Persons). Access to safe drinking water is difficult.”
In addition to living in inadequate
temporary shelters without even the most basic amenities like toilets and
drinking water, Protection Cluster Mindanao also reports children of IDPs
getting sick, stressed and malnourished.
Gun battle
Reports reaching the headquarters of
the Philippine Army’s First Infantry Division reveal that the latest clash
erupted around 8:45 in the morning of Aug. 15, when troops of the 20th Special
Forces Company encountered more or less 35 armed men in the boundary of
Barangays Baiwas and Pamatsaken in Sumisip.
The 20th Special Forces Company
belongs to the 4th Special Forces Battalion, a unit specially trained in
counter-terrorism by US Green Berets advisers as part of the “Balikatan”
exercise series, and were in the area to re-supply a jungle outpost in Barangay
Baiwas.
The exchange left five soldiers
wounded; three of them described as critical. One died at during surgery at
the Camp Navarro Station Hospital (CNGH) in Zamboanga City, where they
were brought after being airlifted from Basilan Island by a UH1H helicopter two
hours after the fighting.
Military sources could not confirm
what damage was inflicted unto the suspected rebel group members, saying only
that operatives saw their antagonists running towards a rubber plantation while
carrying their dead and wounded.
The chief of Task Force Basilan,
Army Colonel Romy Yugyug, said the encounter led them to declare a “triple red
alert” status, to prepare for possible retaliation and the pursuit operation
that First Division Chief Maj. Gen. Ricardo Rainier Cruz III subsequently
launched.
Rubber
Sumisip has been the site of at least
4 fatal encounters between the Army and suspected ASG in the last three months.
And while the group gained notoriety
for their kidnap-for-ransom activities, the armed men the soldiers fought
seemed to be focused on control over lucrative rubber farms.
In a Regional Peace and Order
Council meeting held in Isabela City, also in Basilan, 12 days before the
Sumisip clash, Acting Gov. Mujiv Hataman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim
Mindanao (ARMM) expressed the need for a “pro-active” approach to the problem.
Basilan Province, excluding Isabela
City, forms part of the ARMM.
Hataman, during the meeting, asked
concerned agencies for “specific interventions” to address concerns related to
the operation of the Tumajubong Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Integrated Development
Cooperative (Tarbidci).
Last month, farm workers from
Tarbidci were attacked while on their way to the plantation. Five died and 22
others were wounded, including armed men the cooperative employed to provide
security, in the assault that the military subsequently linked to ASG.
Later, the same group attacked a military detachment whose area
of responsibility included the cooperative’s rubber plantations. The pursuit
operation resulted in the mid-July clash that killed 11 soldiers, wounded 18
more and lead to the internal displacement Protection Cluster Mindanao
reported. (Reported
by Jong Cadion for Pecojon.PH/knr)
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