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Arroyo orders Army chief to lead offensive vs AbuBy Juliet Labog-Javellana, Cynthia Balana
MANILA, Philippines—Talking tough but leaving room for peace, President Macapagal-Arroyo on Saturday ordered that the Army headquarters be moved from Fort Bonifacio to Zamboanga City and sent its chief, Lt. Gen. Romeo Tolentino, to personally lead military operations against the extremist Abu Sayyaf. “I have ordered Army Commanding General Romeo Tolentino to the front lines, to help oversee the theater of operations and to be nearer to my soldiers,” Ms Arroyo said in her third statement since Friday night on the death of 26 soldiers in Sulu. “The Army [headquarters] will now be temporarily set up in the [Western Mindanao Command] in Zamboanga until the situation normalizes,” she said, adding: “I expect General Tolentino, considered a soldier’s soldier, not just to orchestrate punitive actions against those who wantonly maim and kill but also to evaluate the peaceful overtures of those who will demonstrate remorse.”
Earlier in the day, with the military suffering its biggest casualties in two successive months, the President announced a sustained offensive against the Abu Sayyaf. She said the Abu Sayyaf deserved public condemnation for its violent acts. “The military offensive against the Abu Sayyaf must continue, not as an act of vengeance but as a strategy to win the peace,” Ms Arroyo said in a separate statement. “We cannot allow terrorists to hold the South hostage to their agenda of mayhem and blood sport. We seek peace with those with peaceful intentions. But we also seek justice for our soldiers, civilians and communities affected by this conflict. Our troops will prevail because our intentions are just and noble,” she said. In another message issued on Friday night, Ms Arroyo praised the soldiers who fought against the Abu Sayyaf in Sulu and expressed condolences to the families of 26 soldiers killed in the ambush. “We commend the bravery of our soldiers even as we grieve for those who offered their lives in the line of duty, while pursuing our quest for peace and justice. There can be no letup in our fight against terror. The Abu Sayyaf deserves public condemnation for its acts of violence that have stalled peace and progress in the southern Philippines,” she said. ‘Because there’s a war’ The clashes were an offshoot of the killing of 14 Marines, 10 of whom were beheaded, in Al-Barka, Basilan, on July 10, when Moro Islamic Liberation Front fighters ambushed the troops who were returning to base after a fruitless search for kidnapped (and since released) Italian priest Giancarlo Bossi. Speaking yesterday with Vice President Noli de Castro on the latter’s radio program, “Para sa Iyo, Bayan,” Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon said troop casualties were “realities” in a war against terror. But he acknowledged that the 26 soldiers killed in clashes that began on Aug. 2 in Sulu were too many. Esperon clarified that the death toll of 26 did not occur in a single day. He said there were 30 fatalities on the Abu Sayyaf side, based on radio transmissions intercepted by the military. Elsewhere, AFP spokesperson Lt. Col. Bartolome Bacarro said a total of 32 members of the Abu Sayyaf, including the 9-year-old son of an Abu Sayyaf leader, were killed in two encounters with government troops in Sulu in the past three days. (The boy was killed in the crossfire.) Bacarro said the reports were confirmed by military and civilian informants. Asked why the AFP was incurring heavy casualties despite the money being spent to maintain the troops, Esperon said in Filipino: “Because there is a war. Our soldiers are paying with their lives. They are fighting despite the lack of funds. We are not just playing a game here.” Esperon pointed out that 80 percent of the AFP budget was spent on the salaries of soldiers and employees, and only 20 percent went for logistics and firepower. Morale-booster “We are not letting up on the Abu Sayyaf terrorists. And if there are casualties, these are realities in the fight against terrorism,” he said. Esperon said he and Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro would fly to Sulu today to visit the troops and review standard operating procedures in the battlefield. He said the visit was not intended to blame the soldiers but to boost their morale and see what more could be done to enable them to overpower the Abu Sayyaf, whose members now purportedly number 300-400. Today, a C-130 cargo plane is to transport troops from the Army’s 15th Infantry Battalion from Roxas City to Sulu to augment the forces there. The other day, members of the elite Scout Rangers and Special Forces, along with a number of Marines, were flown to Sulu to reinforce the 30th IB now pursuing the bandits. Esperon rejected the notion that the Abu Sayyaf had superior firepower despite its small size. “They have good equipment but we will not be beaten in that aspect. We believe that we have the better organization, squad for squad, motivation for motivation, Armalite for Armalite,” he declared. He said there were “other factors” to consider “like the terrain, which [the enemy] knows very well.” Esperon told De Castro that while there were about 3,500 troops in Sulu as against the 300-400 Abu Sayyaf members, they did not always run into each other in the same areas, especially in ambushes. According to Baccaro, the Wednesday morning clash in Lanao Dakula in Parang town resulted in the death of five members of the Abu Sayyaf. Among those killed was Marad Astig, a follower of Abu Sayyaf leader Radulan Sahiron, he said. Astig is ranked 17th in the military’s order of battle for the Abu Sayyaf. Another fatality was identified only as Jehili, an alleged rogue member of the Moro National Liberation Front. (See story above.) One soldier was killed and five others were wounded. In the encounter on Thursday afternoon in Tambaking, Maimbung, also in Sulu, the bodies of another five Abu Sayyaf members were recovered, Bacarro said. With a report from Alcuin Papa
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