COTABATO CITY — Defense Secretary Gilberto C. Teodoro, Jr., Basilan Governor Mujiv S. Hataman and security officials met in Basilan on Tuesday morning and discussed the intricacies and ramifications of the ambush in Tipo-Tipo town that left 13 military servicemen wounded on Monday.
Radio reports early on Tuesday stated that Mr. Hataman, chairperson of the multi-sector Basilan Peace and Order Council, and his constituent-Muslim religious and traditional Yakan community leaders are cooperating in setting up measures to prevent any repeat of such incident.
Mr. Teodoro was accompanied to the venue of their meeting, inside the headquarters of the 1101st Infantry Brigade in Isabela City in Basilan, by officials of the military’s Western Mindanao Command, led by its commander, Major Gen. Jose Vladimir R. Cagara, and the chief of staff of the Armed Forces, Lt. Gen. Antonio G. Nafarrete.
Mr. Teodoro, Mr. Hataman, Mr. Cagara, the commander of the 1101st Infantry Brigade, Brig. Gen. Frederick M. Sales, and representatives from the Basilan Provincial Police Office tackled ways to intensify multi-sector and inter-agency efforts to keep the peace in the island province.
Police and Army officials confirmed on Tuesday that 12 soldiers from the Army’s 45th Infantry Battalion, not just 11 as reported earlier, and a member of the Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Unit were wounded in the ambush on Monday in Bauno Dagao area in Barangay Badja in Tipo-Tipo, one of the 11 towns in the province.
Officials of units in the province of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region and Mr. Sales separately said that there are indications that the ambush last Monday in Bauno Dagao area in Barangay Badja in Tipo-Tipo, involved a criminal gang, not violent religious extremists.
Police and Army officials said confidential informants relayed to them and to Mr. Hataman that the gunmen behind the atrocity was led by the long wanted Saddam D. Siddick, an apparent retaliation for the death of his spouse, Nermalyn Musa-Siddick, also wanted for heinous crimes, killed in a brief clash last week with policemen and soldiers out to serve both of them with warrants of arrest for high-profile criminal cases pending in different courts in Basilan.
Mr. Siddick is also reportedly known in Basilan for his involvement in large-scale peddling of shabu in the province, coddling of wanted persons in exchange for money and extortion activities victimizing local traders and owners of public transportations plying the routes in areas where he moves around. — John Felix M. Unson