Duterte in Zamboanga to boost AFP morale

MANILA, Philippines  — Against his doctors’ advice, President Duterte yesterday flew to Zamboanga City to meet with military and police officials and get a better picture of the shooting incident in Sulu that led to the death of four soldiers at the hands of local policemen.

“The President will go there to give his assurance that justice will be served and those found at fault punished accordingly, because that is how it works under the administration of President Duterte,” his spokesman Harry Roque Jr. said before Duterte flew to the Edwin Andrews Air Force Base in Zamboanga City.

Roque said the President wanted to make the trip to lift the morale of the troops and assure them that justice would be served for Maj. Marvin Indammog, Cpt. Irwin Managuelod, Sgt. Jaime Velasco and Cpl. Abdal Asula – all from the Army’s 9th Intelligence Service Unit of the 11th Infantry Division.

“First, he wants to know what really happened. Second, he knows that the incident generated some ill-feelings on the part of the Armed Forces because they feel that their colleagues were murdered by the police,” Roque said.

“He would go there to lift the morale  of all the military personnel, the policemen because he knows, if there were those who erred, these should be corrected, and to make sure that incidents like this will not happen again under his administration,” he said.

On Thursday at the wake of the soldiers, Sen. Bong Go said the President insisted on making the trip as “father of the nation” to “calm the situation.”

He said the President wanted to personally talk to soldiers and policemen “to boost their morale in the fight against terrorism.”

Asked about the health risks posed by Duterte’s visit to Zamboanga City,  Roque said the President was insistent on going there to personally address the concerns of his men.

He said the 75-year-old Duterte is “risking his life” by going to Zamboanga to address the tension, if there is any, between the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police.

Like most seniors, the President has co-morbidity issues that make him more vulnerable to COVID-19.

Despite the Jolo incident, the military said its hunt for suspected terrorist suicide bombers will continue.

AFP spokesman Maj. Gen. Edgard Arevalo said “security and intelligence operations in Sulu continue in full swing up to this very moment.”

“There’s no letup,” he aded.

Philippine Army commanding general Lt. Gen. Gilbert Gapay earlier said the slain soldiers were on a mission to take down Mundi Sawadjaan, an Abu Sayyaf leader, when the incident happened.

Arevalo, however, stressed Monday’s incident was just a temporary setback.

“The entire AFP machinery and infrastructure are still in place and on track,” he said in a statement yesterday as the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) continues its probe on what the Philippine Army has described as a “murder” and “rubout” of soldiers.

“The guidance of AFP chief General Felimon Santos Jr. to the troops: ‘eyes on the ball’,” Arevalo said.

‘Distortion of evidence’

The Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) police, meanwhile, are considering taking legal action against the soldiers who rushed to the scene of a shooting incident and “distorted” evidence.

This was the sentiment of Brig. Gen. Manuel Abu as he said the actions of the soldiers may have compromised the integrity of the crime scene.

According to Abu, they will first wait if the reported mishandling of the crime scene will be included in the probe of the NBI.

“I’ll see to it that through our legal counsel we will make another legal act against those people who distorted evidence,” Abu said in a phone interview.

A video of the aftermath of the shooting which went viral on social media showed a group of armed men standing near the soldiers’ corpses and their vehicle. One of the men was seen in the video opening the vehicle’s door.

The military later clarified the men were soldiers who responded to the shooting incident, including a brother of one of the fatalities, Corporal Asula, who checked on his condition.

Abu said the soldiers should have waited for Scene of the Crime Operatives (SOCO).

According to Abu, policemen were initially at the scene of the shooting but left when the soldiers arrived out of concern that a shootout might occur.

Abu claimed that soldiers did not heed the order of Sulu police director Col. Michael Bawayan not to further contaminate the scene.

The police official lamented the criticisms against the police after the video circulated on Wednesday, only to turn out that the armed men were actually soldiers.

Nine police officers who took part in the shooting last Monday were sacked from their post and restricted to quarters at the Sulu Police Provincial Office.

Jolo police chief Lt. Col. Walter Annayo was relieved two days after the incident.

Abu vowed he will discipline the policemen himself if proven they committed irregularities, adding he was also hurt over the deaths of the soldiers.

“I was hurt because two of my underclassmen were killed,” he said, referring to Indammog and Managuelod.

The PNP, meanwhile, refused to comment on the initial findings of the NBI that one of the slain soldiers sustained eight gunshot wounds.  Christina Mendez, Emmanuel Tupas, Michael Punongbayan