By Edwin G. Espejo
This article first appeared in Sun.Star Gensan in 2007 (defunct)
Magnet of attack
IN the wake of renewed bombings, many are again raising questions on the capabilities of police and military authorities to protect innocent civilians from senseless violence.
them lies the onus of explaining why these are happening and will continue to happen.
In all major cities in Mindanao, General Santos is the most vulnerable place to terrorist attacks because of several factors or the combinations of these.
With a population of more than half a million, it is one of the fastest growing cities in the country. Its heterogeneous population makes it easy for attackers to easily blend with the local populace.
Its many entry and exit points make slipping in and out of the city virtually undetectable. It is bounded in the south by Sarangani Bay which serves as one of the backdoor entry points in the south, with the Celebes and Sulu seas farther south serving as open sea lanes from which international terrorist could easily gain access.
It is home to several export industries, notably tuna production and agribusinesses and, at more 640 miles south of Manila, one of the farthest cities from the national capital region.
Yet, it is also one of the most easily accessible with an international-class airport and sprawling seaport. With the advent of communication technology, anyone could gain and send information with the click of the mouse.
General Santos is also the financial and commercial center of the newly-constituted Central Mindanao region which in effect makes the city also the de facto political center in the region.
And while political leaders in the region are bickering over who will get the lion share of credits and political windfall of repositioning the regional offices of government bureaucracies, the police and military still are groping over their ability to consolidate their intelligence information. Having relied heavily on the intelligence network of their former mother units in Southern Mindanao (Region 11), they are left with a void following the realignment of the Region.
Given the combination of these factors, the city has become a sitting duck for terrorists.
A major attack in the city will leave a major political impact while at the same time make the police and military look inutile.
Command of time and space
Joint Task Force Gensan chief Col. Medardo Geslani reluctantly admits that terrorists are the hardest to stop.
“Terrorists are faceless. They have the choice of time and space,” Geslani said adding that terrorist do not attack in military formation.
Geslani, under whose watch three bombs have already exploded in the city which killed 25 people in all and close to a hundred wounded is a veteran of intelligence gathering, having served as S2 (intelligence chief) of the defunct Southern Command).
Yet, he, too, appear helpless amid these attacks.
Mayor Pedro ‘Jun’ Acharon is perhaps the only mayor in country to have suffered the most casualties in these bombing attacks – a total of more than 40 people dead since he took office in February of 2001.
“It is a global phenomenon,” he said in an interview almost two years ago.
Hit and miss
Despite all the flaks from enraged citizens, however, the police and military have scored several victories against suspected terrorists behind the bombing attacks in Mindanao.
Elements of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) in Region 12, with aid of the intelligence unit of the then 601st Brigade of the Philippine Army, were able to capture Abu Sayyaf leader Noor Mohammad Umug, alias Abu Muslim, who confessed to the arson attacks that hit Kimball Plaza and KCC Department Store in 2002.
Umug also admitted he was part of the plotters of the Fitmart explosion in the same year.
Of course, operatives of the Police Regional office in Region 12 (PNP 12) were also largely responsible for the capture of another top Abu Sayyaf leader Nadzmie Saabdulah alias Kumander Global in 2001 and the seizure of more than one ton of explosives and 17 M16 Armalite rifles said to be owned by Indonesian extremist Fathur Roman Al-Ghozie who was slain in an alleged shootout in 2003.
Suspected Abu Sayyaf demolition expert, Abdulbasit Usman, was likewise rounded up by the police.
Usman, reportedly a former Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and an expert in demolition and ordnance who trained in Afghanistan, later escaped while under the custody of the police office in Sarangani.
Behind these accomplishments, however, the police here also came under heavy fore for making questionable arrests and reporting highly irregular accounts of alleged encounters.
Three members of a legitimate Moro people’s organization were rounded up following the Fitmart bombing.
They were paraded as suspects in the blast but police could only file charges of illegal possession of firearms against them.
Just days after the Fitmart bombing, four alleged members of the Abu Sayyaf were slain in what police claim was a dawn encounter in Barangay Bula.
The four turned out to be residents of the city who were rounded up by armed men days before they were killed.
