‘Problem needed quick action’

The use of deadly force to end the standoff at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) control tower at dawn yesterday may have looked like overkill to those who witnessed it on television or heard it over the radio, but the man who led the assault team that ended the crisis believes otherwise.

Philippine National Police-Aviation Security Group (ASG) chief Senior Superintendent Andres Caro said his men spared the country further trouble by shooting dead former Air Transportation Office (ATO) chief Panfilo Villaruel and Navy Lt. (sg) Ricardo Gatchillar.

Both Villaruel and Gatchillar had strapped explosives to their bodies and gained control of the NAIA control tower by ordering all of the tower personnel out at gunpoint and disabling the elevator.

Caro said the decision to assault the NAIA control tower was not his alone, but was also the decision of NAIA management and the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC).

"It was a tough problem that needed a tougher and quick solution," Caro said. When the final option was called in after negotiations fell through, the standoff that spanned several hours ended in mere minutes, with Villaruel and Gatchillar lying dead on the floor of the tower’s view deck.

The crisis that unfolded at the NAIA control tower, an 11-story structure that directs all incoming and outgoing flights, when Villaruel and Gatchillar announced that they were taking over the flight tower at 8:30 p.m. and ordered all workers in the tower to leave the premises.

"I was summoned by NAIA assistant general manager for security (retired) Gen. Angel Atutubo and DOTC Secretary Leandro Mendoza, (who were) asking for police intervention," Caro said.

He said their prime objective was only to arrest Villaruel and Gatchillar after negotiations between the suspects and airport authorities failed.

Caro said "we had to employ the use of force to resolve the crisis because dawn was breaking. It had to end so we could avert a bigger problem."

If the standoff continued after daybreak, international and local flights would have been left blind and at great risk of collision unless the air controllers manning the tower could be brought back to direct air traffic immediately.

With plastic explosives, which they used to blast open the barricaded tower door, and automatic assault rifles, the ASG special operations unit moved in at 3:15 a.m. using the stairway toward the main control tower deck on the 11th floor. Villaruel and Gatchillar had disabled the building’s elevators during the standoff.

"We had to put plastic explosives on the hinges of the steel door to gain entry," Caro said, adding that chairs and tables had been strewn across the air traffic control room to hinder the assault team’s progress.

He also said an exchange of gunfire followed his men’s entry, with the suspects allegedly opening fire from their position on the viewing deck.

"They opened fire while my men were removing the obstacles," he said. "They opened fire first, so we returned fire. They even threatened to blow up the entire NAIA, so we didn’t have any options but to take them out." The ASG assault team was accompanied by a special weapons and tactics (SWAT) team.

The bodies of Villaruel and Gatchillar were brought to the PNP Crime Laboratory at Camp Crame in Quezon City for autopsy. Initial reports said they sustained multiple gunshot wounds, but autopsy results have yet to be released, crime lab chief Superintendent Restituto Mosqueda said.

Retired Army Capt. Rene Jarque, meanwhile, slammed the assault and and the deaths of Villaruel and Gatchillar as "overkill."

Jarque said the police units that responded to the crisis are trained specialists who are experts in close-quarters combat in which they should only disable the subject, not use deadly force.

Jarque, son of retired Brig. Gen. Raymundo Jarque, defected to the New People’s Army out of frustration over the rampant corruption in government.

The younger Jarque is the convenor of the Action Against Corruption and Tyranny Now (ACT NOW), a movement that would help expose and fight corruption, misrule and tyranny. — With Cecille Suerte Felipe