Arroyo to dine with troops in Janjalani slay at Palace

By Joel Guinto
INQUIRER.net
Last updated 04:11pm (Mla time) 01/24/2007

MANILA, Philippines -- President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will honor the troops that had neutralized Abu Sayyaf chieftain Khadaffy Janjalani and other leaders of the Muslim extremist group in Malacañang later on Wednesday, military officials said.

The Marine and Army troops were flown to Manila from Sulu via a C-130 plane late Tuesday evening but will return to the battlefield on Thursday, said Brigadier General Ruben Rafael, commander of counter-terror Joint Task Force Comet.

Among those who had been invited to dinner at the Palace were soldiers from the Marine Battalion Landing Team 9, Lieutenant Colonel Ariel Caculitan, Marine Corps spokesman, said.

The group is under investigation by the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAP) amid allegations that the nine Abu Sayyaf members they had killed in a January 18 encounter in Patikul, Sulu were actually members of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), Caculitan said.

But Caculitan maintained that the nine fatalities were Abu Sayyaf bandits and were positively identified by a member of the al Qaeda-linked group, who was injured and captured in the encounter.

"They will be personally congratulated by the President… There will be
medals, awards, and benefits for the casualties," Rafael told reporters in Camp Aguinaldo, although he could not immediately ascertain what awards would be given to the troops.

Soldiers who figured in the actual encounters that led to the killing of Janjalani, Abu Sayyaf spokesman Jailan Ante Sali alias Abu Sulaiman, sub-commanders Abu Hubaidah and Jundam Jamalul alias Black Killer, will lead the honorees, Rafael said.

Class 12 of the Marine Force Reconnaissance Battalion, under Second Lieutenant Romulo Dimayuga (in photo, raising his shirt to show a battle scar), neutralized Janjalani in a September 4 encounter in Patikul. Jalanjalni's remains were dug up last December 27 and submitted for DNA testing in the US, which had later confirmed that the body belonged to the Abu Sayyaf leader.

The 8th Special Forces Company spearheaded the January 16 encounter in Talipao town that led to the killing of Sulaiman, who allegedly mapped out the bandit group's kidnapping and bombing activities.

Rafael refused to say how many troops were pulled out from Sulu but said this would not affect the hunt for the remaining Abu Sayyaf commanders -- Radullan Sahiron and Isnilon Hapilon, and Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) bomb experts Dulmatin and Umar Patek, the alleged brains of the 2002 Bali bombings.

On Wednesday morning, troops from the Army's 2nd Special Forces Company engaged a small group of Abu Sayyaf bandits in a brief firefight in Talipao. There were no reported casualties, Rafael said.

Reacting to allegations that MNLF members, not Abu Sayyaf bandits were killed in the January 18 encounter, the troop commander, Lieutenant Colonel Melquiades Ordiales said in a phone interview: "We are sure that they are Abu Sayyaf."

Ordiales echoed Caculitan's claim that the captured bandit, a certain Warki, told OPAP investigators that he and his nine slain comrades were Abu Sayyaf members.

Caculitan said the bandit also admitted that he was applying for
membership with the MNLF.

"Our theory is that the Abu Sayyaf has become leaderless, and they are
seeking sanctuary," the spokesman said in a phone interview.

Caculitan added that the encounter site, Patikul, was a known Abu Sayyaf bailiwick and MNLF elements in the island province were concentrated in the towns of Indanan, Talipao, and Panamao.

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