JOLO ISLAND – The party list group, Suara Bangsamoro, on Wednesday demanded the pull out of government soldiers on the island of Jolo in southern Philippines following a shoot out inside a military base that killed 10 people.
It said the presence of soldiers does not guarantee peace on the island, about 950 km south of Manila.
But the shooting left 9 soldiers and a civilian dead and security officials said investigations into the killing are still going on. Reports said a soldier, from the Army’s 35th Infantry Battalion, went berserk and killed 9 of his companions and a civilian. Two other people were injured in the shooting.
“The soldiers should immediately pull out in order to give space for peace and time for the Moro to recover from effects of wars. The presence of soldiers does not and cannot end the ‘terror’ they’ve long been hunting but has and would continue to sow fear to communities,” Amira Ali Lidasan, national president of Suara Bangsamoro Party List, said in a statement sent to the Mindanao Examiner.
She said among the victims of the shooting were two civilians, an errand boy and a female guest who was with the soldiers during their drinking spree.
Lidasan said the shooting incident was a manifestation of a psychological war distress. “This particular effect of war does not only afflict military men but above all this reeled the minds of civilians living in a well-militarized community,” she said.
“Nothing significant is happening to government's intensified campaign against terrorism here, it is so clear that military operations breed more violations to Human Rights than putting halt to terror,” she said.
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