Four soldiers were killed in the line of duty recently. However, they did not die at the hands of enemy combatants, but rather at the hands of their comrades-in-arms, the Philippine National Police.
In case you haven’t heard, we are referring to that incident in Jolo where four soldiers in civilian attire who were on a mission to track down Abu Sayyaf bomb makers and suicide bombers were shot dead by policemen.
It is tempting to immediately accuse the police of being trigger-happy, considering what just happened recently with Winston Ragos, the former soldier who was shot dead by an overzealous policeman in Quezon City. However, pending investigation, there is still a lot we don’t know about this latest incident.
Both the PNP and the AFP have different versions of what happened.
The AFP said the soldiers, who were in a van, were suddenly fired upon with no provocation even after they identified themselves as soldiers.
However, the PNP said the men tried to escape after they were ordered to report to the Jolo Police Station after they identified themselves as soldiers.
The National Bureau of Investigation is now in charge of the case, just like in the case of Ragos.
While we cannot yet say who is right and wrong in the incident, what we can say is that lack of coordination between the police and the army seems to have played a huge part in the misencounter.
Coordination between the armed forces and the police may be something they want to work on. The police and the army may fight on different fronts, but sometimes they face the same enemy.
Over the years, terrorists have been slowly but surely leaving their exclusive operations in the hinterlands and the jungles to seek targets in urban and highly-developed areas.
We don’t wish for incidents like these to happen. Coordination between the armed forces and the police must be strengthened and improved.