From InterAksyon (Mar 19): Surrounded PNP-SAF operatives reportedly asked by MILF to put their hands in the air and leave
Reports reaching Manila indicated that a company of police operatives, including a good number of commandos from the Special Action Force (SAF), early on Wednesday morning entered an area in Datu Saudi Ampatuan, Maguindanao, to seek out alleged high-value targets.
Their presence was duly detected and they were quickly surrounded by forces from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), a reliable source from the intelligence community told Interaksyon.com on Thursday.
The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the police force entered territory under the control of the MILF 106th Base Command, allegedly on a so-called "Time on Target mission" based on intelligence information that the wanted bomb-maker Abdul Basit Usman and Malaysian terrorist Amin Baco alias Jihad were hiding in the area.
"Not a single shot was fired from both sides, because the police team was detected and promptly yelled at by MILF fighters not to proceed in order to avoid an encounter. They were surrounded and told to raise their hands, and to leave if they don't want to be shot at," the source said.
Philippine National Police (PNP) spokesman Chief Superintendent Generoso Cerbo Jr. could not immediately be reached for comment.
Capt. Jo-ann Petinglay, public affairs chief of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division based in Maguindanao, said they too heard about the report, but were still in the process of verifying and to confirm it.
Records show that this is not the first time that PNP-SAF forces were surrounded by Moro rebels and received the "hands up" order.
The first incident supposedly happened in Barangay Tabiaran, Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao, a few years after the unit was established in the early 90s, when some SAF troops found themselves surrounded by MILF fighters.
The second incident is supposed to have happened at Kapatagan Grande in Sitio Fuente Egas, Barangay Masula, Isabela City, Basilan. SAF troops were again surrounded and asked to surrender, this time by fighters of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).
In 1995, SAF men and officers were caught between a standoff of thousands of Army troops and MILF fighters, where the police commandos were again ordered by the MILF forces to raise their arms in the air and get out of the area. This happened in Matanog, Maguindanao.
http://www.interaksyon.com/article/107279/surrounded-pnp-saf-operatives-reportedly-asked-by-milf-to-put-their-hands-in-the-air-and-leave
The victims of the massacre were part of the 180 trainees, mostly Moros, who were undergoing training on jungle warfare, sabotage and infiltration. The training was purportedly part of a wider clandestine operation code-named “Operation Merdeka” for the invasion of Sabah, to which the Philippines had a pending claim. The word Merdeka is an Indo-Malayan term meaning “to set free” or simply “freedom”.
The real story behind the cold-blooded massacre was never made public by the government. There were explanation but at most those were intended to mislead rather than to inform. The lone survivor, Jibin Arola, however made shocking and chilling revelations.
He said that they were ordered shot because they refused to follow orders to attack Sabah. He explained: “How could we attack the Malaysians when they are our brothers and we do not have any an quarrel with them?”
Arola who survived by swimming the shark-infested waters of Corregidor to Cavite was in itself a miracle. Other reasons given were the non-payment of their monthly allowances and the trainees’ desire to resign.
When the invasion story hit the international news headlines, Malaysia, expectedly reacted sharply to the point of going into a frenzy of war preparation. Then Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos vehemently denied the alleged plan of invasion. But no one took his words seriously. But such a project of formidable magnitude and full of diplomatic dangers could not have been undertaken without Marcos’ official go signal.
The man in charge of that top-level operation was Major Eduardo Martelino, and the project was under the direct supervisions of the Civil Affairs Office of the Office of the President of the Philippines.
Project Merdeka failed due the Moro trainees’ refusal to fight against their Muslim brothers in Malaysia. But had it succeeded and Sabah was invaded, the consequence would have been disastrous.
The victims of that infamous incident were never given justice until this day and the people responsible may have passed away without being meted out the appropriate punishment for their crimes.
Nevertheless, the massacre became the starting point of Moro youth awakening, and eventually, the Moro students in Cairo, Egypt and in Manila organized themselves and later own became the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF). To this day, the Moros still grieve for the victims of that heinous crime committed 47 years ago, and like the other massacres of thousands more Moros in other parts of Mindanao of still, they demand for justice. (Source: Salah Jubair’s “Bangsamoro: A National under Endless Tyranny, 3rd Edition, 1999)
http://www.luwaran.com/index.php/welcome/item/789-bangsamoro-people-commemorate-infamous-jabidah-massacre
