The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) on Monday welcomed the Philippine National Police's (PNP) filing of administrative cases against the policemen who were tagged in the fatal shooting of four Philippine Army intelligence agents in Jolo, Sulu nearly three months ago.
(Photo by Nickee BUTLANGAN / AFP / FILE PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN)
"The Armed Forces of the Philippines takes due notice and appreciates the filing of administrative charges by the PNP against 12 of its erring personnel for their respective acts or omission in the shooting incident that claimed the lives of four AFP intelligence personnel — two of them officers," said Major General Edgard Arevalo, AFP spokesperson.
Police Lt. Gen. Camilo Cascolan, PNP Chief, on Monday confirmed that the PNP's Internal Affairs Service (IAS) has filed charges against the nine cops who were accused of direct participation in the killing of Major Marvin Indammog, commanding officer of the 9th Intelligence Service Unit, Captain Irwin Managuelod, field service intelligence commander, and agents Sergeant Eric Velasco and Corporal Abdal Asula last June 29.
The nine cops were identified as Police Senior Master Sgt. Abdelzhimar Padjiri; MSgt. Hanie Baddiri; Police Staff Sgts. Iskandar Susulan, Almudzrin Hadjaruddin and Ernisar Sappal; Police Cpl. Sulki Andaki; and Patrolmen Mohammad Nur Pasani, Alkajal Mandangan, and Rajiv Putalan.
They were already placed under restricted custody in Camp Crame, Quezon City.
Meanwhile, administrative cases for command responsibility were filed against Lt. Col. Michael Bawayan, former provincial director of Sulu; Maj. Walter Annayo, former chief of police of Jolo; and Capt. Ariel Corcino, former chief of the Provincial Drug Enforcement Unit (PDEU) of Sulu.
The three senior police officers were ordered by Cascolan to appear in Camp Crame.
"We are one with the families of our slain soldiers in their pursuit of the filing criminal cases against the said members of Jolo Police," Arevalo said.
"We, in the AFP, will not stop until justice is served with dispatch for the victims of that unfortunate incident," he added.
"Justice should neither be delayed nor denied to our soldiers who were killed while in the actual performance of their solemn duty to protect our people and secure our country from terrorists," he continued.
On June 29, Indammog, Managuelod, Velasco and Asula were shot to death by the nine Jolo cops after being intercepted in a checkpoint.
The cops claimed that the military men attempted to fire shots towards them.
However, the National Bureau of Investigation, which conducted a third-party probe, concluded that the policemen murdered the soldiers.
In a Senate investigation, the police accused one of the slain soldiers of drug links, which was dismissed by the military as a "diversion" to the killing.
The soldiers' killing was widely condemned since the military said the alleged suicide bombers being chased by Indammog's group were behind the two powerful explosions at a plaza in Jolo on August 24.
The twin blasts resulted in the death of eight soldiers, a police commando, and six civilians, and the wounding of 74 others.