Abante, Monday, March 15, 2010
By: Noel Abuel
Nabawi ng military ang isang malaking kampo ng bandidong Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) na sinasabing isang training at bomb-making camp sa kabundukan ng Bgy. Baiwas sa bayan ng Sumisip, Basilan.
Kinumpirma ni Task Force Trillium chief, Rear Admiral Alexander Pama ang malaking accomplishment ng tropa ng gobyerno kung saan nabawi ng mga sundalo ang kampo ng mga bandido sa area na kung tawagin ay “Hill 850” makalipas ang ilang oras na engkuwentro.
Sa naturang pangyayari, tatlo sa mga ASG members ang nasawi at 12 iba pa ang sugatan.
Kinumpirma rin ni Pama na pitong mga sundalo ang nasugatan sa encounter.
Samantala sa hiwalay na pahayag, sinabi naman ni Brig. Gen. Eugenio Clemen, 1st Marine Brigade chief, na ang nasabing Abu Sayyaf camp ay kaya umanong mag-accommodate ng may 100 katao at napapalibutan ng mga booby traps gaya ng mga improvised bombs at landmines.
Narekober din ng militar mula sa kampo ang ilang “training and indoctrination manuals,” mga blasting caps, rifle grenades at ilang empty shells ng M-16 Armalite rifles.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Troops overrun Sayyaf camp
Philippine Star, Sunday, March 14, 2010
By: Roel Pareño
TABIAWAN, Basilan , Philippines - Government troops overran a suspected Abu Sayyaf training camp near Sumisip town yesterday, following a week of ground offensive that left six extremists killed and 12 wounded.
Anti-terror Task Force Trillium and Naval Forces Western Mindanao (NFWM) chief Rear Admiral Alexander Pama said seven troops from the 1st Marine Brigade were wounded as they tried to take over the training camp in Upper Baiwas that were rigged with explosives and booby traps.
Pama said the troops seized several improvised explosive devices (IED), ammonium nitrate, grenades and rifle grenades fashioned into bombs, battery packs, tripwires, and training manuals for bomb making and demolition.
Among the other items recovered were documents revealing an amount of P50,000 was withdrawn on Feb. 4, 2010, indicating ransom money had been paid.
1st Marine Brigade chief Brig. Gen. Eugene Clemen added the troops destroyed 50 huts that served as quarters for more than 100 Abu Sayyaf militants led by Puruji Indama.
Pama said Khair Mundos, an Abu Sayyaf trained by the al-Qaeda linked Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), maintained the camp to train Indama’s men on explosives and bomb making.
Pama said Mundos managed to escape when government troops also launched an offensive on its training camp in Sitio Kurelem in Tipo-Tipo town.
“Khair Mundos and other Abu Sayyaf high value targets from Sulu were encamping in the training camp that was captured,” Pama said.
Pama said the explosives and training manual recovered at the site indicated the alliance of the Abu Sayyaf and JI to launch terror attacks in southern Philippines.
“They have a level of capability which is more dangerous,” Pama warned.
With the continued military operations, Pama said this would deny the Abu Sayyaf sanctuary and prevent them from returning to the area.
By: Roel Pareño
TABIAWAN, Basilan , Philippines - Government troops overran a suspected Abu Sayyaf training camp near Sumisip town yesterday, following a week of ground offensive that left six extremists killed and 12 wounded.
Anti-terror Task Force Trillium and Naval Forces Western Mindanao (NFWM) chief Rear Admiral Alexander Pama said seven troops from the 1st Marine Brigade were wounded as they tried to take over the training camp in Upper Baiwas that were rigged with explosives and booby traps.
Pama said the troops seized several improvised explosive devices (IED), ammonium nitrate, grenades and rifle grenades fashioned into bombs, battery packs, tripwires, and training manuals for bomb making and demolition.
Among the other items recovered were documents revealing an amount of P50,000 was withdrawn on Feb. 4, 2010, indicating ransom money had been paid.
1st Marine Brigade chief Brig. Gen. Eugene Clemen added the troops destroyed 50 huts that served as quarters for more than 100 Abu Sayyaf militants led by Puruji Indama.
Pama said Khair Mundos, an Abu Sayyaf trained by the al-Qaeda linked Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), maintained the camp to train Indama’s men on explosives and bomb making.
Pama said Mundos managed to escape when government troops also launched an offensive on its training camp in Sitio Kurelem in Tipo-Tipo town.
“Khair Mundos and other Abu Sayyaf high value targets from Sulu were encamping in the training camp that was captured,” Pama said.
Pama said the explosives and training manual recovered at the site indicated the alliance of the Abu Sayyaf and JI to launch terror attacks in southern Philippines.
“They have a level of capability which is more dangerous,” Pama warned.
With the continued military operations, Pama said this would deny the Abu Sayyaf sanctuary and prevent them from returning to the area.
Tougher security measures implemented in basilan
Manila Times, Thursday, April 22,2010
By: James Konstantin Galvez and Al Jacinto
The Palace, along with the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and Philippine National Police (PNP), on Wednesday assured that the situation in Basilan is now under control following intensified military campaign against the perpetrators of the recent bombing attack that killed 12 people.
“Security and safety situation in Basilan has improved and is now going back to normal. We have already isolated the cities of Lamitan and Isabela from the reported perpetrators of the bombing last Tuesday,” Philippine Marines Director for Naval Affairs Lt. Col. Edgar Arevalo said in a press conference in Malacañang.
“The members of this terrorist group is now limited in the outskirts of Lamitan City. And we are now continuing with the intensified combat operations as ordered by AFP Chief of Staff Delfin Banguit to ensure that the ASG [Abu Sayyaf Group] will not harm the peaceful, stable, and safe conduct of the May 10 elections,” Arevalo added.
Arevalo also said that additional fresh troops from Manila are now being deployed in Basilan to help in the augmentation and peacekeeping campaign in the province.
He also said that elite members of the Armed Forces and the Marines were deployed to the province to pursue the fleeing members of the Abu Sayyaf.
For his part, Gen. Edgardo Acuña of the national-police deputy chief for operations and concurrent commander of national task force HOPE (Prayer for an Honest, Orderly and Peaceful Elections) said that plans to secure the safe conduct of the elections have already been finalized.
Acuña said that they will employ three-step security plan on the island of Basilan and nearby provinces, which include the orientation of personnel about their responsibilities during election day, additional troops to areas considered as hot spots, and employment of civilian action force that would monitor police personnel specially those assigned to secure election paraphernalia.
“With these contingency measures, we are ready for any unexpected events,” he said.
Meanwhile, Executive Secretary Leandro Mendoza said that the Anti-Terrorism Council is continuously monitoring the situation in Basilan, saying that the President Gloria Arroyo is “dead serious” that there will be no failure of elections.
Basilan has been tagged as an election hot spot because of the presence of private armed groups and history of election-related violence.
Besides Basilan, additional police officers and soldiers have been deployed to nine provinces that are considered as “priority areas” including La Union, Nueva Ecija and Masbate in Luzon; Samar and Iloilo in Visayas; and Lanao del Sur, North Cotabato, Sulu and Maguindanao.
Meanwhile, one of two captured Abu Sayyaf militants tagged as among those behind twin bombings in Basilan had died from his wounds at a local military hospital, officials said Wednesday.
Officials said Umbar, who was wounded in a firefight with troops last week, died late Tuesday in hospital at the military’s Western Mindanao Command headquarters. “An Abu Sayyaf member captured by government troops after the attack in Isabela City in Basilan died of cardio respiratory arrest secondary to sepsis due to his infected wounds,” said First Lt. Steffani Cacho, a regional military spokesman.
She said the body of the militant was handed over to an imam and buried in a coastal village called Caragasan, west of Zamboanga City.
Cacho said another militant, Ajib Hainal, who was also wounded in the fighting and captured by the military in Basilan province, would soon be handed over to the police.
“Hainal is ready for release to the police,” she said.
By: James Konstantin Galvez and Al Jacinto
The Palace, along with the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and Philippine National Police (PNP), on Wednesday assured that the situation in Basilan is now under control following intensified military campaign against the perpetrators of the recent bombing attack that killed 12 people.
“Security and safety situation in Basilan has improved and is now going back to normal. We have already isolated the cities of Lamitan and Isabela from the reported perpetrators of the bombing last Tuesday,” Philippine Marines Director for Naval Affairs Lt. Col. Edgar Arevalo said in a press conference in Malacañang.
“The members of this terrorist group is now limited in the outskirts of Lamitan City. And we are now continuing with the intensified combat operations as ordered by AFP Chief of Staff Delfin Banguit to ensure that the ASG [Abu Sayyaf Group] will not harm the peaceful, stable, and safe conduct of the May 10 elections,” Arevalo added.
Arevalo also said that additional fresh troops from Manila are now being deployed in Basilan to help in the augmentation and peacekeeping campaign in the province.
He also said that elite members of the Armed Forces and the Marines were deployed to the province to pursue the fleeing members of the Abu Sayyaf.
For his part, Gen. Edgardo Acuña of the national-police deputy chief for operations and concurrent commander of national task force HOPE (Prayer for an Honest, Orderly and Peaceful Elections) said that plans to secure the safe conduct of the elections have already been finalized.
Acuña said that they will employ three-step security plan on the island of Basilan and nearby provinces, which include the orientation of personnel about their responsibilities during election day, additional troops to areas considered as hot spots, and employment of civilian action force that would monitor police personnel specially those assigned to secure election paraphernalia.
“With these contingency measures, we are ready for any unexpected events,” he said.
Meanwhile, Executive Secretary Leandro Mendoza said that the Anti-Terrorism Council is continuously monitoring the situation in Basilan, saying that the President Gloria Arroyo is “dead serious” that there will be no failure of elections.
Basilan has been tagged as an election hot spot because of the presence of private armed groups and history of election-related violence.
Besides Basilan, additional police officers and soldiers have been deployed to nine provinces that are considered as “priority areas” including La Union, Nueva Ecija and Masbate in Luzon; Samar and Iloilo in Visayas; and Lanao del Sur, North Cotabato, Sulu and Maguindanao.
Meanwhile, one of two captured Abu Sayyaf militants tagged as among those behind twin bombings in Basilan had died from his wounds at a local military hospital, officials said Wednesday.
Officials said Umbar, who was wounded in a firefight with troops last week, died late Tuesday in hospital at the military’s Western Mindanao Command headquarters. “An Abu Sayyaf member captured by government troops after the attack in Isabela City in Basilan died of cardio respiratory arrest secondary to sepsis due to his infected wounds,” said First Lt. Steffani Cacho, a regional military spokesman.
She said the body of the militant was handed over to an imam and buried in a coastal village called Caragasan, west of Zamboanga City.
Cacho said another militant, Ajib Hainal, who was also wounded in the fighting and captured by the military in Basilan province, would soon be handed over to the police.
“Hainal is ready for release to the police,” she said.
10 soldiers honored
Manila Bulletin, Friday, March 5, 2010
By: Ginalyn Kabiling
Ten soldiers who excelled in
the combat operations and civic
duties were given a tribute~y
President Arroyo in Malacanang.
Included in the prestigious
list of outstanding soldiers Was
Army Col. Melquiades Feliciano, -battalion commander
of the 71st Infantry Battalion in Nueva Ecija, who was
reportedly implicated in the
disappearance of activist Jonas
Burgos last year.
The President hailed the
awardees of The Outstanding
Philippine Soldiers (TOPS),
coming from the Philippine
Army, Navy, Air Force, and
Technical Service, for their gallantry
and heroism.
Mrs. Arroyo said the annual
TOPS program, initiated by
Metrobank Foundation and Rotary
Club of Makati City, "serves
as avenue to showcase the Filipino soldier's courage, sacrifice,
integrity, duty and service to
the country."
Apart from Feliciano, the
other outstanding soldiers are
Master Sgt. Ruben Lucero,
MasterSgt. Hercules Regis of the
Philippine Army;
Col. Nathaniel Casem, Technical Sgt. Marcelo
Batingan, Sgt. Vicente Sustivierio Jr. of the Philippine Navy,
Col. Arnold Mancita, Master Sgt. Leonilo Pedrosa,
TechnicalSgt. Rogelio Alarcon Jr. of the
Philippine Air Force and
Major Vicente Magaro of the
DentalService.
By: Ginalyn Kabiling
Ten soldiers who excelled in
the combat operations and civic
duties were given a tribute~y
President Arroyo in Malacanang.
Included in the prestigious
list of outstanding soldiers Was
Army Col. Melquiades Feliciano, -battalion commander
of the 71st Infantry Battalion in Nueva Ecija, who was
reportedly implicated in the
disappearance of activist Jonas
Burgos last year.
The President hailed the
awardees of The Outstanding
Philippine Soldiers (TOPS),
coming from the Philippine
Army, Navy, Air Force, and
Technical Service, for their gallantry
and heroism.
Mrs. Arroyo said the annual
TOPS program, initiated by
Metrobank Foundation and Rotary
Club of Makati City, "serves
as avenue to showcase the Filipino soldier's courage, sacrifice,
integrity, duty and service to
the country."
Apart from Feliciano, the
other outstanding soldiers are
Master Sgt. Ruben Lucero,
MasterSgt. Hercules Regis of the
Philippine Army;
Col. Nathaniel Casem, Technical Sgt. Marcelo
Batingan, Sgt. Vicente Sustivierio Jr. of the Philippine Navy,
Col. Arnold Mancita, Master Sgt. Leonilo Pedrosa,
TechnicalSgt. Rogelio Alarcon Jr. of the
Philippine Air Force and
Major Vicente Magaro of the
DentalService.
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