Marine troops in Janjalani slay to be recognized

By Joel Guinto
INQUIRER.net
Last updated 04:28pm (Mla time) 01/22/2007

MANILA, Philippines -- Marine troops who killed Abu Sayyaf chieftain Khadaffy Janjalani will be given “due recognition,” a spokesman for the military said Monday, as it rejected doubts over the results of a DNA test that confirmed the bandit leader’s death.

A board for awards and decorations is evaluating the post-encounter report on the September 4 encounter in Patikul town, Sulu province, where Janjalani was, prior to his death, believed to have been fatally wounded, to determine the award to be given to the troops involved, Lieutenant Colonel Bartolome Bacarro said.

A fresh graduate from the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) on his first assignment, Second Lieutenant Romulo Dimayuga (in photo taken at the AFP Medical Center last September 6), led some 20 of his men against some 200 Abu Sayyaf bandits in the three-hour, pre-dawn gunbattle.

“Definitely, due recognition will be given to those who initiated the attack against Janjalani,” Bacarro told reporters in Camp Aguinaldo. He said it was too early to tell if they would be given the Medal of Valor, the military’s highest combat honor.

Outnumbered and with six of his men killed and 19 others including himself, wounded, Dimayuga and his men fought it out with the bandits for some two and a half hours before reinforcements from the Force Reconnaissance Battalion arrived.

Reacting to doubts raised by Janjalani’s family that the DNA test was not enough to prove his death, Bacarro said the test was just a “final confirmation” of military reports that the notorious bandit leader had been killed.

“Even before the DNA tests, we have reports that Khadaffy Janjalani was wounded sometime in September. He was initially wounded and then died,” Bacarro said.

“We have human intelligence and technical intercepts of their [bandits’] radio communication saying that Janjalani was killed… These were eventually validated [by the DNA tests],” Bacarro said.

Bacarro added that captured former Abu Sayyaf members led authorities to Janjalani’s gravesite in Patikul on December 27.

Tissue samples taken from the decomposing remains matched those from the saliva of Janjalani’s brother, Hector, based on tests conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the United States, leading authorities to conclude that Janjalani had been killed.

Bacarro said the FBI report, which was sent to Manila last Saturday, “has not been declassified” and could not be released to the public. A one-paragraph excerpt from the report, the portion saying that the DNA match proved Janjalani’s death, was released to media on the same day.

The spokesman said US authorities were evaluating who would receive the $5-million dollar reward they had offered.

Confirmation of Janjalani’s death came several days after Abu Sayyaf spokesman Jainal Sali alias Abu Solaiman and sub-commanders, including Abu Hubaida, Black Killer, and Binang Sali were killed in encounters with government troops in Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.

In preparation for possible retaliatory attacks by the Abu Sayyaf, Bacarro said the military raised the red alert last Saturday.

He said the highest terror alert of “extreme critical” remained in effect in Mindanao, following a string of bomb attacks there earlier this month, while the second highest “moderate” alert was in effect in Metro Manila.

Bacarro likewise echoed Military Chief Hermogenes Esperon Jr.’s statement that no leader as strong as Janjalani or Solaiman could take over the Abu Sayyaf leadership.

With the two at the helm, the Abu Sayyaf kidnapped 20 people, including foreign tourists from the Dos Palmas resort in Palawan province on May 27, 2001; bombed the Superferry 14 off Manila Bay on February 27, 2004, and the cities of Makati, Davao, and General Santos on February 14, 2005.

“They [bandits] can appoint figureheads but they will have a hard time looking for someone with the caliber and characteristics of Solaiman,” Bacarro said.

Bacarro said Esperon ordered troops to press on with the hunt for the remaining Abu Sayyaf leaders -- Radullan Sahiron and Isnilon Hapilon and the two Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) members believed to be hiding with Janjalani in Sulu -- Umar Patek and Dulmatin -- the alleged brains of the 2002 Bali bombing.

The spokesman said the military has not confirmed reports that Patek was wounded in the September 4 encounter.

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