AFP officer in Basilan fiasco that left 19 elite army forces dead gets new assignment

Published February 28, 2013 4:40pm

The military leadership has given new assignment to a senior military officer who figured in the bungled operation in Al Barka town in Basilan that left 19 Special Forces soldiers dead and many others wounded in October 2011.

On Feb. 27, Col. Alexander Macario assumed his new post as inspector general of the Army’s 4^th Infantry Division based in Cagayan de Oro City.

Fourth ID spokesman Lt. Col. Eugenio Julio Osias IV on Thursday said Macario replaced Col. Ferdinand Quidilla who had been promoted as the next commander of the 402^nd Brigade. Macario and three other officers were relieved from their posts after Al Barka fiasco, which the military leadership had alleged was due to serious lapses committed in the conduct of the operations. The four were later tried by a general court martial.

At last Wednesday's turnover ceremony, Osias said Macario “vowed to do his job and continue what his predecessor has done in promoting the integrity, accountability and improvement of the system’s efficiency in support to the programs and operation of the command in serving the public.”

Osias quoted 4^th ID commander Maj. Nestor Añonuevo as telling Macario “you have my confidence that you are the right person for this designation and I believed that you can equal or even surpassed what Col Quidilla has accomplished.”

Al Barka fiasco Macario was the commander of the Special Operations Task Force Basilan that was supposed to serve arrest warrants against a small group of Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels and Abu Sayyaf terrorists in the outskirts of Al Barka.

Subjects of the arrest warrants resisted and as the fighting ensued, supporters of some 400 men came to their rescue, walloping the troops who were numbering only about 100.

Macario, along with Special Forces Regiment Training School commandant Lt. Col. Orlando Edralin, was cleared by the military tribunal of the charge last October.

A third officer, Col. Aminkadra Undug, the erstwhile commander of the Special Force Regiment, was convicted of violating the Article of War 97 or conduct prejudicial to good military order and discipline last January.

Undug is also barred from handling any command or duty position for at least six months, including other punishments.

The fourth officer, Lt. Col. Leo Pena, the former commander of the 4^th Special Forces Battalion, is still facing trial. — LBG, GMA News

Tags: albarka, basilan, specialforces, alexandermacario