HUNDREDS of officers and men who have
recently completed the PNP Special Action Force course will be
deployed to hunt down Abu Sayyaf terrorists responsible for last
Sunday’s ambush in Sumisip, Basilan that left seven policemen
and a civilian asset dead.
Supt. Danilo Bacas, operations chief of the
PNP-Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said the 226 SAF
policemen are due in Basilan anytime this week after they were
sent off from Manila last Sunday.
The PNP, like the Armed Forces, traditionally
sends new graduates on a combat course for a test mission. The
226 SAF policemen will join about 300 from the Basilan
provincial police office in hunting down the ambushers.
"We are preparing large combat operations, we
are just waiting for them (SAF policemen), said Bacas. He said
the operations will be coordinated with the Marines who are at
the forefront of the fight against the Abu Sayyaf.
Personnel from the Basilan provincial mobile group and a
civilian asset were on a patrol at the outskirts of Sumisip when
they were waylaid by about a hundred terrorists last Sunday
afternoon. Earlier reports said the ambushers were led by one
Commander Abugao, a former leader of the Moro Islamic Liberation
Front. Bacas said they have information that the ambushers
included Commander Amir Mingkong, also a former MILF commander.
"We are also preparing legal offensive against them, they will
be charged with murder and frustrated murder anytime this week,"
he said. – Victor Reyes
