The Philippines: Counter-Insurgency Vs. Counter-Terrorism in Mindanao

Basilan’s unique volatility arises from the fact that the small island is home to all three main separatist rebellions – MNLF, MILF and ASG. Clans are often involved in all three networks, as well as local electoral politics, where access to high-powered firearms is at a premium. Acting on information that Fr Bossi had been sighted in Al-Barka municipality, Philippine marines set out on patrol on the morning of 10 July 2007.

Two days earlier, Basilan marine commander Col. Ramiro Alivio told Crisis Group that unusually large formations of armed men – several hundred strong – had been making their presence felt in the area for some months. Rather than attempting to distinguish their component members, which could have involved a complicated “paper trail” with the ceasefire committee, Alivio chose to regard them as undifferentiated “lawless elements”. As his men turned back for base camp with no sign of Bossi, a truck bogged down in the mud, and, following standard operating procedure, marines fanned out around the vehicle to secure the perimeter. The site – in Guinanta village – is the location of two of the MILF’s three brigade commands in Basilan. Unknown to the marines, MILF forces were closely observing their movements. As the marines came within metres of the guerrillas’ high ground, gunfire erupted.

A CCCH official described what ensued as a “pintakasi” (a fight in which everyone joins in). Once combat began, armed men from surrounding neighbourhoods, including ASG fighters, joined against the marines in the hope of sharing in the spoils – captured equipment, arms or ammunition – or of avenging past wrongs. Followers of local politicians were embittered by the marines’ rigid enforcement of the previous May’s election gun ban. Fourteen marines died, ten of whom were decapitated and otherwise mutilated. Triggered by a lack of coordination between AFP and MILF, the Al-Barka incident demonstrated the power of a momentary tactical alliance across organisational boundaries. An MNLF commander from Basilan noted: “MILF’s three brigades [about 500 men] will become 3,000 men if ‘loose arms’ on the island are consolidated by the failure of the peace talks”.94

The Ipil Incident: February 2008

A mechanism like AHJAG with the MNLF might have helped avert an incident like the AFP’s reported killing of seven civilians and an off-duty soldier in Ipil village, Maimbung, Jolo on 4 February 2008. Claiming they had intelligence that ASG, led by Abu Pula (“Dr Abu”) and foreign jihadis were in the area, a unit of the regional military Task Force Comet stormed the village. Two soldiers were killed. According to the Sulu governor (confirmed to Crisis Group by official sources in Manila who did not wish to be identified), they died from friendly fire between the Army’s Light Reaction Company and the Navy’s Special Warfare Group, both of which are part of the task force.

The army’s version was that one of the victims, Ibnul Wahid, a former MNLF rebel turned AFP soldier, who was reportedly on leave, was a suspected ASG member and killed the two Task Force members before he died.95 Wahid’s wife said he was tied up and executed with a shot to the back of the head. Of the seven civilians killed, two were children aged four and nine; one was a pregnant woman, one was a village councilman, and three were local men aged nineteen, 24, and 37.

“It was a legitimate encounter”, Maj. Gen. Ruben Rafael was quoted in the Philippines press as saying. “As far as we are concerned, troops clashed with the Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiyah”.96 His statement was refuted by the regional director of the national Commission on Human Rights, who also documented attacks and looting of village houses by the government troops and recommended that criminal charges be filed against the attackers. A team of prosecutors from the justice department was sent to investigate on 26 March.97

The apparent misinformation about ASG presence in the village was reportedly linked to a rido (traditional clan feud) in which an informant for the military saw an opportunity to get the army to attack his rivals. It resembled incidents previously contained by international ceasefire monitors on Jolo, but for which victims now have little recourse.98 The local knowledge of ex-MNLF army integrees like Ibnul Wahid is potentially an enormous resource in the conflict with the ASG but is prone to misuse in petty local vendettas. Ideally, it should be mediated through a rigorous intelligence-sharing mechanism like AHJAG.