Soldier hit by sniper fire in Marawi: ‘Akala ko mamamatay na ako’

Corporal Ayatulla Hamid thought his end was near when sniper fire hit his side in the afternoon of June 20, 2017.

It was his 19th day of deployment in Marawi, nearly a month into the fierce battle to reclaim the southern city from the hold of the Islamic State-inspired Maute terror group.

“Pagdating ng June 20 po alas tres y media ng hapon, tinamaan po ako sa tagiliran ng bala po,” he said on Friday in an interview on Unang Hirit, on the verge of tears even if it has been four months since his harrowing experience.

“Nasa isip ko po no'n, akala ko mamamatay na ko,” he told Ivan Mayrina at an event organized for soldiers who have returned home from the liberated city.

The injury would deem the corporal unfit to serve the rest of his deployment. He would stay in the hospital for four months, and even until today the bullet that incapacitated him remains lodged inside his body, being too dangerously close to his spinal cord to extract.

But he is home now, he said, and he is happy. He has nothing but thanks for his colleagues in his unit, and for the Armed Forces.

“Masaya po, kasama ko na ang pamilya ko. At saka ngayon, nakabalik na ako sa unit ko. Maraming salamat, nakapagtrabaho na po ako ulit sa unit ko. Sana tuloy-tuloy po ‘to ulit,” he said.

And for all the pain his line of work could cause him, as it has, he said he will return to any battlefield in the future.

“Babalik po kami kasi ito po ang sinumpaan naming tungkulin,” he said.

Corporal Hamid had his own brush with death, which claimed the lives of at least 163 other soldiers.

The families of fallen or injured soldiers and police officers will receive housing units under the new Armed Forces of the Philippines - Philippine National Police Housing Program.

The fighting in Marawi was officially declared terminated on October 23, days after President Rodrigo Duterte announced its liberation. Marawi was the stage of a battle that took five months to conclude. The military is now conducting clearing operations in Marawi. —Nicole-Anne C. Lagrimas/KG, GMA News