Outgoing AFP chief vows to address 'friendly fire' issue

From the Philippine News Agency (Jul 11): Outgoing AFP chief vows to address 'friendly fire' issue

Outgoing Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief-of-staff Gen. Emmanuel T. Bautista on Friday vowed to address the "friendly fire" incident in Sulu which killed six troopers last month.

"I am constituting a BOI (board of inquiry) from the level of the general headquarters to look into this report and find out what we can do and the appropriate actions that we need to take, to address that issue," he said.

Bautista said he creceived the BOI report conducted by Western Mindanao Command head Lt. Gen. Rustico Guerrero, last Monday.

"It's an unfortunate incident, nobody wants that but it happened, as you all know even among the best armies in the world that occurs and lately we've seen that, even with the United States Army in Afghanistan, and it is (a) hazard that we face as members of the Armed Forces," he added.

The AFP chief is scheduled to step down by July 20.

"And what is being done is to be conscious about it and to learn from all these incidents so it does not happen (again)," Bautista pointed out.

He declined to comment on whether the parties responsible for the incident will be punished, adding they better wait for conclusion of the investigation before coming out with a statement.

Six troopers of the Joint Special Operations Group (JSOG) were killed after their command post was accidentally hit by a 105mm shell.

The JSOG troopers were supposed to reinforce the Marine Force Reconnaissance that was attacked by Abu Sayyaf Group brigands last June 19 in Barangay Kagay, in Patikul town.

The ambush killed one Marine officer and wounded 11 others.

This prompted survivors to call for fire support from a nearby Marine 105mm battery.

The consequent shelling hit the position of the JSOG operatives, killing six troopers immediately.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=1&sid=&nid=1&rid=661731