The Bicutan Siege: Another View

A non-government report gives an alternative account of the events surrounding the attempted jailbreak on March 15 this year at the Metro Manila District Jail (MMDJ) in Camp Bagong Diwa, Bicutan, involving some detained leaders of the Abu Sayyaf. The report describes the "excessive use of force" by the police sent in to end the stand-off that had by then dragged on for more than 24 hours, as officials led by Interior and Local Government Secretary Angelo Reyes failed to negotiate for the surrender of the leaders of the uprising.

Twenty-six prisoners, three jail guards and a police officer were killed at the end of the failed jailbreak.

Among those who died were Nadzmi Sabdulla (Commander Global), leader of the Sulu faction of the Abu Sayyaf; Alhamser Manalad Limbong (Commander Kosovo), said to have tortured and killed American national Guillermo Sobero and Catholic priest Rhoel Gallardo, whom they abducted with many others in Sumisip, Basilan in 2000; and Galib Andang (Commander Robot), chief of the unit that in 2000 kidnapped Western tourists on Sipadan Island in Malaysia and detained them in Sulu.

The report said members of the police Special Action Force (SAF) stormed the Special Intensive Care Area (SICA) building of the MMDJ at 9 a.m. after negotiations bogged down. The detainees had issued five demands, originally written in Filipino and translated for the report by PAHRA:

• Speedy trial
• Respect for their human rights
• Security
• Food and other needs
• Media projection

As the negotiations failed, the SAF threw teargas canisters into, and then strafed, each of the cells on the first, second and third floors of the building. After the methodical firing, says the report, detainees on the 2nd and 3rd floors were ordered to strip down to their underwear and come out of their cells.

"Once out of their cells, the detainees were kicked and punched and ordered to put their hands behind their heads and crawl up to the rooftop. Some wounded detainees who were crawling out and asking for help from the … SAF … were ordered by the latter to return to their cells. As they did so, they were shot."

The report calls the police action "excessive," given, it says, that less than ten detainees had joined Commander Kosovo in the uprising. All the other detainees, numbering almost 400, had taken to their cells and locked themselves in precisely to avoid being caught in the conflict.

The report further tells of how two of the Abu Sayyaf leaders who ended up dead were simply executed, and did not die during the firefight. One of those was the amputee, Commander Robot.

Moreover, the report says, Department of Justice counsels prosecuting the cases of the suspected members of the Abu Sayyaf, Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) "had prior knowledge of the planned bolt out of some detainees two months before the Bicutan siege." This information was then relayed to the officials of the Bureau of Jail Management and Prisons (BJMP).

The report was released by the NGO, Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (PAHRA), using interviews and investigations conducted by government's own Commission on Human Rights (CHR), the office of Congressman Mujiv Hataman, lawyers for some of the Abu Sayyaf detainees, as well as other human rights NGOs. Completed on April 18th, the report was released on the 21st.

You may contact PAHRA for any queries regarding the report. Tel.: 436.2633

READ THE COMPLETE REPORT HERE