AFP admits ‘lapses’ made troops easy targets in Sulu

Army chief Lt. Gen. Romeo Tolentino on Sunday vowed to correct the mistakes government forces committed in Sulu last Thursday morning when Abu Sayyaf and rogue Moro National Liberation Front gunmen ambushed troops in Indanan, Sulu, leaving 10 soldiers dead and another wounded. Later Thursday, soldiers clashed with joint Abu Sayyaf and rogue MNLF forces in Maimbung town, also in Sulu. The skirmishes left 15 soldiers and 27 Abu Sayyaf bandits dead and nine soldiers and 25 bandits wounded. Tolentino acknowledged the difficulty of dealing with the decades-long Muslim guerrilla rebellion in the Muslim Mindanao, saying the Army troops ambushed by insurgents Thursday appeared to have relaxed their guard and become easy targets. GMA News quoted Tolentino as saying that he will try to rectify the soldiers’ mistakes in Thursday’s encounters with the enemies. Tolentino reportedly said that the soldiers went on with the war without coordination, and boarded only one vehicle. ''Once you become overconfident, accidents happen,'' he told reporters on Jolo Island. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, already enraged by Muslim insurgents' beheading of 10 Marines on nearby Basilan Island last month, took the unprecedented step of temporarily moving the Army headquarters from Manila to southern Zamboanga City Saturday. The move brings Tolentino to the front lines of looming offensives on Jolo and Basilan. The heavy losses and beheadings have rattled the military and shattered months of relative tranquility on both predominantly Muslim islands, where the Abu Sayyaf, the MNLF and the country's largest rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, have waged protracted guerrilla-style insurrections for years. Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro, who assumed his post Wednesday, flew to Jolo with Armed Forces chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon and Tolentino, meeting commanders behind closed doors in a heavily fortified military camp to assess last week's clashes and to brace troops for a new battle against Muslim insurgents, said military spokesman Lt. Col. Bartolome Bacarro. They were to fly later to Basilan to meet army and Marine commanders there, the military said. AFP dilemma A major military dilemma is how to enforce Mrs Arroyo's order to hunt down and decimate the Abu Sayyaf - a group blamed for deadly bombings and high-profile ransom kidnappings -without antagonizing the MNLF, which signed a 1996 peace accord with the government, and the MILF, which has made a truce with troops while engaging in Malaysian-brokered peace talks with the government. The military has accused Abu Sayyaf gunmen of deliberately seeking refuge in MNLF or MILF strongholds to evade pursuing troops. Many rebels from the three groups are also bonded by blood ties and battle-forged friendships. Authorities have blamed a combined force of MILF and Abu Sayyaf militants for the July 10 attack that killed 14 marines, 10 of whom were beheaded, in Basilan's Al-Barka township. Last Thursday's ambush on Army troops, on their way to buy food at a market in Indanan, was blamed on Abu Sayyaf and MNLF rebels. As reinforcement troops pour in Jolo and Basilan, officials say thousands of villagers have fled their homes fearing fresh fighting. Only rogue MNLF targeted Also Sunday, Esperon Jr said the military is not treating the entire MNLF, which has signed a peace accord with the government in 1996, as an enemy in the province of Sulu. Esperon clarified that government forces are only pursuing rogue MNLF rebels affiliated with the Misuari Breakaway Group (MBG) for joining Abu Sayyaf bandits in last Thursday’s skirmishes that left 25 soldiers dead and 10 others injured. The MBG is a faction within the MNLF, which is sympathetic with former MNLF chairman Nur Misuari, who is on a house arrest in Manila for a pending charge of rebellion. It has about a few hundred of members. "The MNLF under Parouk Hussin is with us. They are helping us. They are not adversaries," said Esperon, hinting that the mainstream MNLF is helping the military in the ongoing operations against the Abu Sayyaf and the rogue MNLF forces. "There are breakaway MNLF. There are even double double breakaway. We saw those elements [in the encounters]," said Esperon, referring to the past skirmishes with the Abu Sayyaf in the island province. ’Sacrifices won’t go to waste’ The Army assured that the sacrifices of the slain soldiers would not be in vain. “We will not let their sacrifices go to waste," said Army spokesman Lt. Col. Ernesto Torres of the slain troops. On the orders of Mrs Arroyo, Tolentino flew to Sulu Saturday to help orchestrate the operations against the Abu Sayyaf. Torres said the military is sustaining its operations in the island province and in the nearby province of Basilan to once and for all put an end to the terrorist group, which is behind a number of high-profile attacks in the country. “We are doing our best to finish off the Abu Sayyaf," said Torres, adding that Tolentino would be utilizing his “experience" and “knowledge" in the area of operations which also involves Marines. Torres said the Army chief and the Army headquarters are normally the force and logistics provider for the operating units. However, he said that with the President’s order, “there might be slight changes in the normal functions of the Army headquarters." “With his extensive experience and knowledge, he would be able to help in the early solution of the problem…Up to now, he has many friends in the area who can be of help in the operations," said Torres. GMANews.TV with a report from AP