BUTELIN, Datu Piang, Maguindanao (MindaNews/09 September) -– Inside a small nipa hut, the bodies of the children and their pregnant mother – riddled with shrapnel allegedly from a bomb fired from an OV-10 Bronco bomber aircraft — were lined up on the floor, just about two feet above the waters that overflowed from a nearby river. Still shocked, not one of the relatives who were all crying, could talk. At the entrance of the hut’s small door, Catholic priest Elino Isip of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, called on Fadza Salido, neighbor of the victims.

Fadza identified them as Aida Mandi, 23 and her children Bailyn, 10, Zukarudin, 7, Adtayan, 5, and Faida, 2. She said Daya Manunggal, the children’s father, and another son named Khneg, both wounded, were still missing. Their bodies had not been recovered by neighbors who were also fleeing the war on their bancas.

Salido said the Manunggal family fled Barangay Te – their village-turned-war zone – for safer ground here on board a banca – but just as it was crossing the Bugok River, some 200 meters away from the landing area here, a bomb allegedly dropped from an OV-10 aircraft exploded near them.

The banca ride between the parallel barangays some 600 meters apart, is estimated to be around 10 minutes.

“A lot of people are dying here. There are still two whose bodies have yet to be recovered (apparently referring to the still missing father and son). Times like this, we don’t know what to do,” the teary-eyed Fr. Isip, parish priest of this predominantly Muslim town.

Panalon Ugkad says both father and son are likely dead.

The bombing was part of the Army’s pursuit operations in search of Ameril Ombra Kato, commander of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front’s (MILF) 105th Base Command who was blamed for the alleged attack against civilian communities in neighboring North Cotabato Province in early August.

Along the five-kilometer stretch of the highway from Butelin to the Poblacion here, hundreds of villagers walked to safer grounds here.

Social Welfare Officer Bai Ebos, who was with three other volunteers, said “it is very difficult for us to monitor and account for all the evacuees at this point as they are still moving.”

Ebos has 13,000 evacuees on her list, not counting the new batch.

Aside from hosting displaced villagers from the interior barangays of Datu Piang, the town is also hosting hundreds of evacuees from neighboring Midsayap, North Cotabato.

At the bridge located about a hundred meters from the hut where the bodies of the Manunggal family were awaiting cleaning up for burial, bancas docked, loaded with evacuating civilians who braved the rains and the raging river current, most of them children.

The Manunggals were buried, according to Islamic tradition, by dusk of September 8.

In a telephone interview at around 2 p.m., Lt. Col. Julieto Ando, spokesperson of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division based in Camp Siongco, Awang, Datu Odin Sinsuat town in Shariff Kabunsuan, said he had “yet to receive reports from the field.”

Brenda Albarico, a Bantay Ceasefire volunteer from Midsayap, North Cotabato, who immediately responded to help ensure the safety of civilians, was furious at the soldiers after seeing the bodies of the Manunggal family

“If we earlier denounced the alleged atrocities of the MILF in Lanao del Sur, we are denouncing this killing of civilians in the strongest term. This is all the more deplorable because those who killed the civilians are supposed to be not lawless elements but are those we expect to protect the lives of the people,” Albarico said in Pilipino.

The incident, she said, had all the more “strengthened” her commitment to work for peace and “help poor civilians like me who are all victims of this war that we have long demanded for government and the MILF to stop.”

“We call upon Congress, the Commission on Human Rights and other peace and human rights organizations to conduct a thorough and impartial investigation on this sad incident. Above all, we want to see justice reign in this case,” Albarico said.

She expressed fears that the incident may “invite more people to join the Moro rebellion. Mawalang saysay ang lahat ng ating peace efforts pag ganito ang ginagawa ng ating gobyerno. Hindi ako takot na sabihin ito dahil ito ay katotohanan” (Our peace efforts will go to waste if government keeps on doing this. I am not afraid to say this because this is the truth).

Bai Ali Indayla, spokesperson of Kawagib, a Moro human rights organization, said they
condemn “the inhumane acts and indiscriminate aerial bombing by the Armed Forces of the Philippines…. The military should be held accountable for violating human rights and disrespecting the Muslim civilians who are fasting during this holy month of Ramadhan.” (Romy B. Elusfa/MindaNews contributor)