The retrievers found 23 dead Marines all in all. Fourteen of the bodies were found to have been beheaded.

The AFP was quick to point to the MILF fighters as the perpetrators of the beheadings – an accusation the top MILF leadership vehemently denied.

On Aug. 2, in a priviledged speech, Basilan Rep. Wahab Akbar identified four of the Marines’ beheaders as Umair Indama, Nurhasan Jamiri, Buhari Jamiri and Suaib Kalibon. Akbar in his speech cited an eyewitness account from one of the wounded Marines whose hand was amputated because one of the beheaders was after his ring.

“The subject cannot get the ring because it was too tight so the subject ended in amputating the hand of the Marine,” Akbar said. “Bringing the hand of the Marine home, then cut his finger just to get the ring.”

The Basilan representative, however, did not say whether the four beheaders were MILF or Abu Sayyaf members. Nonetheless, he had earlier discounted the possibility of MILF involvement in the beheadings.

Akbar said the four were responsible for several kidnappings – including that of Grace Gonzales, daughter of the president of Western Mindanao State University – in 2006.

In his privileged speech, Akbar stresed that there is no ASG presence in his province. However, in an interview with Bulatlat in 2006, a former government official who had taken part in the negotiations for Gonzales’ release had identified her abductors as ASG members.

Indama, the two Jamiris, and Kalibon were also identified in the report of the joint GRP-MILF fact-finding team, which cited accounts from two witnesses aside from the soldier quoted in Akbar’s speech. The fact-finding team, which alleged in its report that the Marines’ beheaders were ASG members, recommended among other things the creation of a task force that would hunt down the perpetrators of the beheading.

With that, the MILF has also called for the amendment of the charge sheet on which the warrants of arrest issued in connection with the July 10 encounter were based. This charge sheet includes in its list of suspects several John Does, according to Angeles.

Random arrests possible

Angeles has voiced fears that the situation in Basilan may give rise to a repeat of the “all-out war” between government forces and the MILF in 2000.

“Precisely because the charge sheet includes several John Does, police may arrest just anyone and claim that those they arrested are MILF or ASG members involved in the encounter and the beheadings,” Angeles told Bulatlat. “The random arrests, if they happen, could anger the relatives of those who will be arrested and this could escalate tension further.”

The “all-out war” between government forces and the MILF in March 2000 was sparked by a ferry bombing which the Estrada government blamed on the MILF – an accusation the group denied. Government troops used the bombing as pretext to break into and overrun MILF areas. The “all-out war” led to the loss of thousands of lives and the displacement of as many as half a million civilians.

 Save as PDF