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THE
military vowed on Monday to finish the campaign against
the Abu Sayyaf in Basilan by wiping out the remaining
bandits and other lawless elements in the province.
This
developed as President Arroyo ordered the Energy and
Education departments to conduct a “humanitarian
offensive” in Sulu and Basilan by putting up
solar-powered science laboratories for students in the
two provinces.
Brig.
Gen Juancho Sabban, Task Force Thunder commander and
Western Mindanao Command deputy chief, said that the
ongoing operations in Basilan would only end after the
bandits have been decimated.
Sabban
said there was a lull in the fighting between the
government and the Abu Sayyaf on Monday, but added that
this does not mean that the operations have been
stopped.
He said
Marines continue to pursue and are now establishing
positions on the possible escape routes of the bandits,
who engaged soldiers in a close-quarters battle on
Saturday.
Sabban
believes that government forces have already pinned down
the mobile and retreating Abu Sayyaf, whose three
positions were shelled with 105- mm howitzers on Sunday.
Sabban
said the Abu Sayyaf positions brought the Marines to
disadvantageous points, hence the need to shell them,
prompting the bandits to retreat.
“Although there is a lull in the fighting, the operation
against the Abu Sayyaf is ongoing. The search was not
stopped and the troops are covering the bandits’
probable escape routes,” he said.
The
clash on Saturday left 15 soldiers killed, five of them
junior officers, and more than 40 Abu Sayyaf bandits.
Meanwhile, the remains of 14 of the 15 Marines killed in
Basilan on Saturday were airlifted to Villamor Air Base,
Pasay City, on Monday afternoon en route to their
respective residences.
One of
the killed Marines, an officer, was taken to his
residence in Pasay City following a ceremony held in the
chapel of the Naval Forces Western Mindanao
headquarters.
The
bodies were airlifted by a C-130 “Hercules” Air Force
transport plane from the Edwin Andrews Air Base
accompanied by some military officials and the relatives
of the fallen troops.
The band
of the Air Force’s 3rd Tactical Wing played “Bayan Ko”
as the caskets were being loaded to the transport plane.
Ungkaya
Pukan Mayor Joel Maturan said he is proud of the Marines
for their efforts in pursuing the al-Qaeda-linked Abu
Sayyaf bandits, who allegedly dismembered 10 of the 14
Marines killed in a Moro Islamic Liberation Front ambush
in Al-Barka, Basilan, on July 10.
The 15
fatalities, five of them officers, were killed during a
close-quarters battle in sitio Kurelem, barangay
Selangkun, Ungkaya Pukan.
The
National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) meanwhile
reported that there has been no increase in the number
of evacuees in Basilan, despite ongoing military
offensive against the bandits.
Also,
the NDCC said that the situation in Sulu province
remains “very fluid” as the military continues to track
down the bandits’ lairs in the towns of Indanan, Parang
and Maimbung.
NDCC
records showed that 4,566 families comprising of 23,959
people from 40 barangay are staying in five evacuation
centers in Basilan, and Sulu. (With B. Garcia Jr.) |
