Filipinos remember siege of Zamboanga

By Roy Ramos

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines

It was early morning when the news broke, residents glued to their radios as reports revealed that rebels had attacked the southern Philippines city of Zamboanga.

For the next 20 days, the population cowered in their homes as government troops fought a fierce gun battle with members of a Muslim separatist group opposed to a peace deal between the ruling powers and their breakaway group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

"I thought it was the end," Cheng Elumbra, a 30-year-old computer layout-artist, who was caught inside the city's biggest government hospital some 200 meters from where the first major gun battle broke out, told the Anadolu Agency.

She said that even today - one year on - she still remembers the loud boom from mortar shells exploding within the compound as the rebels engaged the soldiers nearby.

All over this majority Christian city, residents and dignitaries are this Tuesday remembering those they lost, and the fear they felt September 9, 2013 when some 500 gunmen from the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) arrived from the neighboring Muslim provinces of Sulu and Basilan to occupy six coastal villages just more than two kilometers from the main commercial district and City Hall.

The invasion sparked a massive hostage scenario which resulted in the death of more than 300 people - including most of the attackers, government troops, policemen and civilians - and the destruction of some 1,000 houses, most of which were populated by Muslims, leading to the displacement of over 100,000.

Residents told AA that over the first hours there was no gunfire or explosions, only the sight of hundreds of policemen and soldiers in armored vehicles scrambling to the perimeter of the affected villages and the main commercial district that was already deserted. 

Around 8 a.m., live streams from local television stations showed the MNLF gunmen - under the leadership of chairman Nur Misuari - taking over the villages. In one, they set up a command post on a two-level concrete commercial building and demanded the flag of the self-proclaimed "Bangsamoro Republik" be raised over City Hall.

It was an order through which Misuari was determined to illustrate his animosity toward the MILF's "Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro" that - on being signed on March 27 this year - brought to a close 17 years of negotiations and ended a decades-old armed conflict in the southern area of Mindanao - the second largest and southernmost major island in the Philippines - while granting Muslim areas greater political autonomy.

Misuari and his MNLF claim the new deal is a betrayal of a 1996 agreement between the government and MNLF, has left his organization shortchanged, and granted Muslims in the region lesser autonomy.

While talks were ongoing, they had stormed the city in protest.

Local Mayor Maria Isabelle Climaco Salazar rejected the demand for the "Republik" outright, and warned the gunmen to leave the city or be forcibly evicted. But as army and police troops closed in, the rebels seized dozens of villagers and took over three adjacent villages where more civilians were captured and told they would become human shields. 

As the day wore on, tensions flared, negotiations failed, and as darkness began to fall, sporadic gunfire broke out - the beginning of a series of fierce firefights that culminated almost three weeks later in the capture and surrender of some 200 attackers.

Shops, banks and offices in the city's center were shut down, and all commercial flights and road transport ground to a halt, bringing the city to a standstill.

"I was worried the firefights and violence would spread to the rest of the city, and also deeply apprehensive of the serious effects it would bring to the city's business and economy," Pedro Soliven, then president of the local business chamber, told AA. 

By the end of the siege, the region's economic growth had declined by 8.6 percent - from which it is still to recover today. 

Jimmy Villaflores, chief of Sta. Catalina village - where Muslims and Christians continue to live side-by-side - told AA that one year after the attack, rehabilitation is still not complete. The region's economy has been devastated, buildings destroyed in the firefight have still not been rebuilt, and even his compound is still riddled with bullet holes, outhouses destroyed by rocket fire.

"The September 9 attack will linger in my memory for as long as I live, he said. "I remember pleading to the rebels to release the women and children they held hostages and made human shields, [and] how we carried the bloody wounded and dead civilians and how we dodged bullets and shrapnel."

He also recalled helping villagers evacuate burning houses ignited by the heavy exchange of gunfire and shelling.  

The siege saw a litany of abuses against young and old - 71-year-old Norma Lladones died preparing breakfast when a mortar round landed in the kitchen, killing her instantly, while May Ann Tigoy, 6, was hit by a stray bullet in a school gym where her family had sought shelter following a gun battle in their neighborhood.

"She was standing, washing her hands when we heard gunshots. She collapsed covered with blood," recalled her mother.

In another village, two-year-old boy Ethan Ando died when he was caught in the crossfire as his parents tried to evade capture by the MNLF, moving from house to house, until a stray bullet hit him on the side of his head.

Ethan's mother Michelle told AA that the gunmen initially treated everyone well, but as fighting intensified the six Ando family members and around 60 others were used as "human shields" - Ethan included.

On the second day of the siege, reinforcements were called - Philippines President Benigno Aquino III taking direct command of the battle against the attackers.

Air strikes and aerial bombardment from gunboats eventually helped ground forces in their battle to retake the six villages and forced the MNLF rebels to withdraw, but the all-out offensive killed several soldiers and civilians and ignited several fires that razed some 1,000 houses.

After 20 days of fighting, MNLF rebels holed up in the villages surfaced with white flags while the rest were captured. Their leader Habier Malik, however, was nowhere to be found - sources since suggesting that Malik - heavily injured - was able to escape to Sulu where he later died of loss of blood.

As government troops rounded the attackers up, they were shocked to discover many females in their ranks - among them a female sniper reported to have positioned herself in the minaret of a mosque in Sta. Barbara, from where she picked off soldiers and policemen as they approached the town.

Today, some 100,000 mostly Muslim villagers - whose houses were razed during the siege - are still entrenched in filthy evacuation centers in the city - among them a sports center which is now home to around 12,500 people. According to the city health office, 155 of them have died - 49 percent of them children below five years old, mostly from diarrhea and pneumonia-related illnesses. Thousands more remain crammed into tents - sleeping on terraces, fighting crowded conditions, improper sanitary measures and the heat.

Many more of the displaced live in shacks on Cawa-Cawa Boulevard, for years a picturesque road fringed with palm trees popular with couples taking romantic walks as the sun went down, but now overrun with tents and tatty wooden shacks with blue plastic sheets for roofs, their occupants spilling out onto the road begging for money and food.

About 3,000 others have been relocated to "transition sites" outside the city boundaries, most existing on food rations provided by the city government and non-governmental organizations. 

Trapped, penniless and living in absolute squalor, some of the female evacuees are reported to have been forced into to prostitution, while some male counterparts resorted to drug peddling as their only means of providing for their families. Arrests, fights and arguments frequently occur, with police regularly called.

Today, one year after the siege, fear and apprehension still grips residents amid rumors that the MNLF are gathering to launch a second attack.

Zamboanga Mayor Climaco has appealed for calm, in particular asking for people to refrain from spreading text messages suggesting an MNLF attack plot.

Soldiers and police troopers' presence remained strong Monday in the city's downtown commercial center, roadblocks and checkpoints regularly checking for firearms on all vehicles, and navy gunboats conducting patrols off the city's coastal areas to prevent a repeat of the attack.

Meanwhile Misuari, since charged with rebellion and human rights violations, remains on the run.

Although 200 of his troops were rounded up during the siege, and are still awaiting trial for rebellion charges and charges for violations of international humanitarian laws, photos of him posted on an MNLF website last month showed him in full battle gear with an automatic M16 rifle, talking again of a "Bangsamoro Republik" with his top commanders and armed followers behind him.

He called "for the unity of all Bangsamoro freedom fighters in pursuit of the complete independence and national self-determination of the Muslim and Animist Lumad natives as well as conscious Christians of Mindanao from Philippine colonialism."

Senior Supt. Angelito Casamiro, Zamboanga City Police chief, told reporters this weekend that no one in the city wanted "the September 2013 incident to happen again." 

He added that a security plan called "Guardian Shield" is seeking to ensure that locals could mark today's anniversary in a positive way through the deployment of additional troops.

Activities to commemorate the siege include a commemorative wreath-laying ceremony in honor of those who died during, a commemorative mass and an event at the city's Plaza del Pilar where hostage victims will give testimonies of their ordeal.

Affected villages will also hold their own activities to commemorate the crisis. 

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