As Mayor Datu Abubakar Paglas looked around the mosque whose concrete walls bore bullet marks fired from outside the now-shattered jalousie windows, and splinters believed to have come from a grenade blast, he noted along with the rest of the FFM that there were no bullet marks on the fence made of hollow blocks directly facing the shattered windows. None, too, on the steel gate, and no bullet holes in the two houses in the compound made of kalakat (woven split-bamboo panel) and concrete, none that would indicate that a 90-minute encounter happened here.
Datu Paglas Mayor Abubakar Paglas (center) addresses members of a fact-finding mission as he points to an area in the mosque in the Husain compound in Barangay Madidis where a grenade reportedly exploded and where two of the seven persons killed in a raid on June 18, 2023 were found.. MindaNews photo by MANMAN DEJETO
On June 18, Brig. General Allan Nobleza, regional commander of the Police Regional Office in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) said the joint security forces were armed with search warrants but were welcomed by a burst of gunfire.
“It was a fierce firefight that lasted more than an hour and half,” Nobleza said.
Mayor Paglas had repeatedly said he wants a “fair investigation” into what happened in the Husain compound in Barangay Madidis (the mayor said it was not in Barangay Damawato but in Madidis, as Damawato is on the other side of the highway). He repeatedly denied claims by the government operatives that the seven persons who were killed here were members of the ISIS-inspired Karialan faction of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF).
Paglas said the seven, including two relatives of his, were members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) National Guard, not BIFF members, and were former workers in the banana plantation, one of them the husband of an employee in the municipal hall.
Datu Paglas Mayor Abubakar Paglas addresses a fact-finding team in the municipal hall on 27 June 2023. MindaNews photo by MANMAN DEJETO
“Walang Freedom dito” (There is no Freedom here), the mayor told members of the FFM who met with him at the municipal hall before proceeding to the Husain compound.
“Freedom” refers to the BIFF and the mayor maintains there is no BIFF here. He said the news identifying the seven as members of a local terror group is destroying the image of his town and will drive away investors and potential investors.
The BIFF had briefly occupied the town market – for about 40 minutes — on May 8, 2021 but there was no encounter with the military and the town had since recovered. Until June 18.
Armed with search warrants issued by Judge Angelito Rasalan on June 16, the operatives on June 18 arrived at the compound where brothers Nasser Yussef Husain alias Tutin Usop and Norjihad Madidis Husain alias Datdat Usop, lived, in search of firearms.
No coordination
Mayor Paglas lamented that the operatives did not coordinate with the local government unit, not even with barangay captain Nasrudin Nawal, who told the fact-finding mission (FFM) that he learned about the operation only when he was awakened by gunshots. He lives about a hundred meters away. Two of the victims were his relatives.
Datu Paglas Mayor Abubakar Paglas joins members of the fact-finding mission in the Husain compound on 27 June 2023. MindaNews photo by MANMAN DEJETO
The FFM was initiated by Bantay Ceasefire, a group of volunteers from communities and civil society organizations that had been monitoring the ceasefire agreement between government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) since 2002. Representatives of the Bangsamoro Human Rights Commission and the Commission on Human Rights in Region 12 and the Integrated Bar of the Philippines Cotabato City and Maguindanao chapter also joined the mission. Bantay Ceasefire volunteers Mary Ann Arnado and Bailen Mantawil, now members of the Bangsamoro Parliament, were also present.
The town’s acting police chief, Captain Nurhjasier Sali, had not warmed his seat when the bloody law enforcement operation happened. Sali assumed the post on June 16. He told the FFM that he was informed at around 10 p.m. on June 17 that there would be an operation in his area but no details were provided.
Captain Nurjhasier Sali, acting police chief of Datu Paglas town in Maguindanao del Sur, assumed the post on June 16. At 2:28 a.m. on June 18, Sali received a call from a captain in the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group that they need assistance as there was resistance from the persons whose houses they were supposed to search. MindaNews photo by MANMAN DEJETO
He said he received a call at 2:28 a.m. on June 18 from a Captain Cepeda of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), seeking assistance, claiming there was resistance from the subjects of the warrants. When he and his men reached the compound shortly after 3 a.m., they were told to evacuate the seven who were pronounced dead upon arrival at the Provincial Hospital in Isulan, Sultan Kudarat.
The mayor is worried that nine days after June 18, no Scene of the Crime Operatives (SOCO) had gone to the compound to investigate. Sali said Cepeda’s team tried early that morning to call the SOCO which is based in faraway Cotabato City, but got no reply. He said he could not send his police to the area because “hindi ko pwede isugal ‘yung mga tao ko magpunta doon” (I cannot risk sending my people there) for fear of retaliation from relatives of the slain seven.
MILF resolution
The MILF’s Central Committee, headed by MILF chair Al Haj Murad Ebrahim, now interim Bangsamoro Chief Minister, also wants a probe.
The Central Committee issued a resolution on June 20, “strongly urging” the national government to “take immediate action on the tragic loss of lives” of MILF members it identified as Nasser Yousef Husain, 34; Norjihad Husain, 29; Nasrullah Mamay Singkala, 38; Ivan Pumpugay, 18; Izrael Laguiab, 41; Morsid Madidis, 50; and Mama Karim, 53.
It said the “horrific incident” happened in an MILF community “where the victims already filed their application for amnesty” as part of the implementation of the peace agreement between government and the MILF signed on March 27, 2014 and the Bangsamoro Organic Law of 2018 which paved the way for the creation of the BARMM.
The MILF urged government to “urgently undertake an impartial, honest, credible and fair fact-finding investigation by a third-party investigator; sanction the immediate return of the International Monitoring Team to ensure that ceasefire is preserved; genuinely and sincerely implement all aspects of the Normalization process; and immediately convene within July 2023, the Joint Peace Implementing Panels of the GPH and the MILF in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in keeping with the signed agreements, and towards efforts of resolving diverging views on some aspects of implementation.”
The Philippine government under President Benigno Simeon Aquino III and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front finally sign the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro in Malacañang on 27 March 2014 after 17 years of negotiations. MindaNews photo by Julius Mariveles / Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism
It called on President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. to “give paramount importance to justice, peace and security.”
It said what happened in Datu Paglas on June 18 is “only the latest of a string of law enforcement operations” in the BARMM “where loss of lives and injustice could have been prevented, had the concerned law enforcement agencies observed the Operational Guidelines for the Ad Hoc Joint Action Group (AHJAG),” a peace process mechanism that both parties set up two decades ago.
Under the CAB’s Annex on Normalization, the International Monitoring Team (IMT), the AHJAG, the Joint Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities (CCCH), the Local Monitoring Teams and AHJAG Team Sites are supposed to continue to perform their functions. It said the non-renewal of the Terms of Reference of the IMT since January 2023 “also impacts on the implementation of cessation of hostilities, including violations of international humanitarian laws and human rights.”
In the past, allegations of violations from either side were brought to the attention of the IMT which then conducts a probe.
The absence of coordination by law enforcement agencies in the June 18 operation is “a gross violation of the ceasefire agreement, and undermines the primacy of the peace process,” the MILF said.
Assistance due to resistance
According to the spot report submitted by Sali to the chief of the Philippine National Police in Maguindanao del Sur on June 18, six firearms were seized by the operatives, two of them M-16, one home-made Uzi and three caliber .45 pistols, and several ammunition.
Mayor Paglas said the two long firearms were supposed to be presented by the Husains during the decommissioning of MILF combatants.
From outside, one can see the bullet marks on the wall of the mosque in the Husain compound in Barangay Madidis, Datu Paglas town in Maguindanao. MindaNews photo by Carolyn O. Arguillas
Sali told the FFM that he and his men arrived at the Husain compound “past 3 a.m.” but could hardly see anything because “masyadong madilim” (it was so dark) and they were just on the street “sa labas” (outside) the compound.
But in his report to the provincial office, Sali said that while implementing the service of the search warrant, the operatives “encountered … more or less 15 heavily armed men that resulted to a firefight (that lasted) more or less 1 hour and 30 minutes.”
Barangay Madidis chair Nawal estimated the gunfire at 30 minutes.
“In the presence of” but not present
According to the report of Sali, who arrived at the compound shortly after 3 a.m., the search was “conducted in an orderly manner in the presence of” Madidis barangay chair Nawal and Kagawad Tatuan Nawal of Barangay Damawato.
Nawal, who was summoned at home by the Datu Paglas police at a little past 3 a.m. recalled that he also waited outside the compound and was not asked to go inside even as he identified himself as the barangay captain when one of the operatives pointed a gun at him.
Nasrudin Nawal, chair of Barangay Madidis in Datu Paglas, Maguindanao del Sur, tells members of the fact-finding mission that the police-military operations in his village on June 18 was not coordinated with them and that he found out about it only when he heard the gunshots. MindaNews photo by MANMAN DEJETO
He told the FMM that the Datu Paglas police brought him to the 1st Mechanized Battalion’s headquarters in President Quirino town in Sultan Kudarat province, where he was made to sign two documents by the operatives – one on the service of the search warrant and the other on the inventory of firearms. Nawal was not in the crime scene where the inventory of firearms was supposed to have been done in the presence of an elected official and a media representative. Nawal said he was told to affix his signature so the bodies of the seven victims can be released to the families. When Sali was asked if he noticed the operatives were wearing body cameras, he replied the area was too dark.
Mayor Paglas, who was a few steps away from where Nawal stood, told the FFM that barangay captains are forced to sign documents due to fear.
The mayor said that unlike the municipalities dominated by Christians, “sino naman … ang hindi pipirmang mga kapitan dito sa atin sa BARMM? Yan ang sakit natin. Maski hindi totoo, makakapirma tayo” (who among the barangay captains in the BARMM will not sign? It’s a disease of sorts. Even if it what the document states is not true, we can be made to sign).
BIFF, MILF
According to Sali’s report, Nasser Yussef Husain alias Tutin Usop was a former battalion commander of the BIFF Karialan faction and his brother Norjihad Madidis Husain alias Datdat Usop are both native of Tulunan, North Cotabato, a neighboring town of Datu Paglas, and are “original members of the BIFF Karialan Faction under the leadership of the Mohiden Animbang aka ‘Karialan’ that operates in the two provinces of Maguindanao, referring to del Sur and del Norte.
The two are sons of Commander TMX, which Sali’s report said was a “Division Commander of the BIFF-KF.”
The report further said the father and sons “received IED (improvised explosive device) training from the late Basit Usman in Mamasapano, Maguindanao.” And were “involved in the bombing of the National Grid Corporation (NGCP) tower in Barangay Kitulaan, Carmen, North Cotabato on September 3, 2016.
Bantay Ceasefire volunteer Mary Ann Arnado (R), a Member of Parliament in the Bangsamoro region, speaks with Datu Paglas Mayor Abubakar Paglas during a visit to the house of one of the seven victims killed during a law enforcement operation on June 18. The mayor accompanied members of the fact-finding mission to the Husain compound in Barangay Madidis on 27 June 2023. MindaNews photo by Carolyn O. Arguillas
The two, according to Sali’s report, were also involved in the attack in Datu Paglas Public Market on May 8, 2021, which displaced some 5,000 civilians and “provided manpower, armaments, logistics, food staff (sic), and served as guides from Liguasan Marsh to Datu Paglas proper during the said attack” and were also “affiliated to Tahir Alonto KFRG (Kidnap For Ransom Gang) under Tahir Alonto that involved in kidnapping and drug-related activities in the area of Maguindanao del Sur and have a direct contacts (sic) to Sukarno Hamdan aka Shiek, BIFF Field Commander under BIFF-Karialan faction.”
But when Member of Parliament Arnado asked Sali if there were BIFF in his area of responsibility, Sali cited the 2021 incident. “As of now, wala” (none), he said.
Mayor Paglas reiterated the victims were MILF members who are earning their livelihood from their farm and a poultry. He said the Husain compound is just a few meters away from a highway detachment that was set up there in 2016.
He said there is no MILF camp in Datu Paglas but “every barangay, may MILF” (in every barangay, there is an MILF member) who are productive members of the town.
Key witnesses
The key witnesses to what happened inside the compound – the families of the slain victims – were interviewed Tuesday afternoon by another FFM team in the MILF camp in Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao del Sur.
But on June 18, Mirinda Madidis Husain, the mother of Nasser and Norjihad, appealed for “hustisya lang po sa mga anak ko ko kasi wala silang kasalanan” (justice for my sons because they committed no crime), she said.
The mother recalled in a Brigada News video interview, that at around 12 midnight, she felt something was wrong because “parang maingay ba” (it was noisy). By 1 a.m. they were being fired at, firing that she claimed lasted until around 2 a.m. She said the gunshots were “marami” (many).
“Basta na lang binaril kami tapos pinasok” (They suddenly fired at us and barged into our houses), she said, adding that when she asked if they had a warrant of arrest, a gun was pointed at her and she collapsed.
Members of a fact-finding team pay a visit to Datu Paglas Mayor Abubakar Paglas in the town’s municipal hall on 27 June 2023. MindaNews photo by MANMAN DEJETO
She said one of her sons, Nasser Yusoph, fired back in self-defense. She said only Nasser had a firearm, as Brigade Commander of the MILF in the area.
She also claimed that all seven were handcuffed, including her son who was wounded. “Yung dalawa nakaposas. Lahat sila nakaposas… Nakaposas sila bago pinatay (The two were handcuffed. All of them were handcuffed… They were handcuffed before they were killed), she said.
Senator Robin Padilla, chair of the Senate Committee on Cultural Communities and Muslim Affairs, has filed a resolution asking the Senate to conduct a probe into possible violations of the GPH-MILF peace agreement in relation to what happened here on June 18.
He told Senate reporters on June 26 that he wants to be enlightened on what really happened in Datu Paglas to protect the integrity of the peace process as reports have surfaced that what happened here was a case of extrajudicial killing.
“Pangit ito para sa peace process. Nakailang taon na tayo, huwag naman sanang ito maging dahilan na masira itong peace process” (This is not good for the peace process. We’ve had gains for several years, let this not destroy the peace process), said Padilla, the lone Muslim in the 24-member Senate. (Carolyn O. Arguillas / MindaNews)
https://www.mindanews.com/top-stories/2023/06/datu-paglas-mayor-does-it-look-like-an-encounter-happened-here/
