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The bodies of the three of the four Army soldiers who were killed in Sulu were brought home in Manila and arrived at Villamor Air Base on Tuesday afternoon.
In a report submitted by the Sulu Police Provincial Office to the Police Regional Office of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), the names of the soldiers were identified and described the fatalities as officers and personnel of the “army intelligence unit.”
Jolo police identified the dead soldiers as Maj. Marvin Indammog, commanding officer of the 9th Intelligence Service Unit (ISU); Capt. Irwin Managuelod; Sgt. Eric Velasco, and Cpl. Abdal Asula.
According to a military officer with information about Monday’s shootings in Jolo said police folowed the soldiers’ van after they had identified themselves, the Associated Press reported. The soldiers then stopped their vehicle and one of them got out with his hands up, but the police opened fire on the soldiers, the source told AP.
From the reports gathered, the soldiers were conducting an intelligence operation to locate suspected bombers linked to an Abu Sayyaf unit led by Mundi Sawadjaan, an operative identified last week by police intelligence sources as a key planner of twin suicide bombings that killed 23 people at a church in Jolo in January 2019.
The four Abu Sayyaf suspects killed in Friday’s raid in Parañaque City, outside Manila, were believed to be planning terrorist activities and were “financial conduits” for the Philippine affiliate of Islamic State (IS), sources in military and police intelligence said.
The four suspects also had an “established connection” with Mundi Sawadjaan, officials said after last week’s raid. According to local media, Mundi is the nephew of Hatib Hajan Sawadjaan, the top leader of the Philippine branch of IS.
Likewise, Philippine Army chief Lieutenant General Gilbert Gapay revealed the names of the nine Jolo police personnel who were involved in the gunfire to reporters present during the arrival honors for the remains of three of the four soldiers killed by police officers on Monday.
Gapay identified the cops as Police Staff Sergeant Almudzrin Hadjaruddin, Patrolman Alkalaj Mandangan, Patrolman Rajiv Putalan, Police Senior Master Sergeant Abdelzhimar Padjiri, Police Master Sergeant Hanie Baddiri, Police Staff Sergeant Iskandar Susulan, Police Staff Sergeant Ernisar Sappal, Police Corporal Sulki Andaki, and Patrolman Moh Nur Pasani.
An enraged Gapay told reporters that the incident could not be a case of misencounter but murder.
“It was murder. It is murder… there is no misencounter dahil hindi naman pumutok ‘yung tropa namin. Nandoon ‘yung mga baril nila sa baba. These are PNP personnel, kung may misencounter, nagkaputukan, palagay niyo walang tatamaan na PNP? This was no misencounter here, it was a rubout…” Gapay said.
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