Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Speak out: Experiencing an ambush situation
By TED LUGTU
BSJCO, Barangay T. Padilla
ON the way to a town fiesta, we rode with barrio relatives on a carabao-pulled cart from a nearby barrio to the town proper of Concepcion.
As Pinoy culture goes, such yearly trip was filled with eager anticipation of the day’s upcoming events, not the least of which was eating the traditional lechon.
Halfway to our destination, we passed by another barrio where, to our surprise, a group of uniformed soldiers stopped us “for inspection.”
Up ahead, I saw another group of soldiers surround a house by the road, guns ready, while their leader shouted to those inside to “come out and surrender.”
Suddenly, gunfire erupted from the houses across the street, hitting the soldiers in what obviously was an ambush.
As the soldiers that stopped us on the road ran for cover, my uncle whipped the bull that was pulling the cart so it would run fast and bring us out of the battle zone.
We were lucky to get past the fighting without any of us getting hit.
However, we soon saw one of the soldiers, already without a rifle, run in obvious panic toward us, using us as human shields.
Good that the ambushers did not fire at the running soldier behind us, or the consequences could have been disastrous for our group.
Later that day, we heard from the grapevine that the soldier who used us for cover was the sole survivor.
The bodies of his companions were found by responding units half naked, with guns and uniforms taken by the attackers, then known as the Hukbalahaps or the Hukbong Bayan Laban sa Hapon.
You see, the ambush I am narrating here happened during the Japanese occupation, when some of our countrymen enlisted as constables under Japan.
Those ambushed were these so-called “doble-karas.”
I am bringing this up to provide some lessons to our military leaders.
When dealing with insurgents and lawless elements like the Abu Sayyaf in their own turf, it is important to have reliable intelligence info before entering their territory.
Sheer bravado can be suicide, as shown by the ambuscades in Sulu and Basilan that have resulted in needless loss of lives.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (August 29, 2007 issue)
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