ON OCTOBER 30, about 30 CPP-NPA Terrorist (CNT) members engaged in a 30-minute firefight with the government troops from 403rd Infantry Battalion whose operation started at 12:30 past midnight. And the final assault was carried out at 11:30 in the morning.
Reading the account of the 4th Infantry Division under the command of Major General Romeo S. Brawner Jr., something must be fishy about the redundant clockwork of 30-30-30-30-30.
Anyway, when the dust settled, two cadavers were seen at the encounter site, of which in a supplementary examination, the corpses were confirmed to be of Jorge Madlos alias Ka Oris and his medic.
If the 4ID tale is precise and truthful, a nosy reader may ask, where are the 30 CNT fighters whose mission at that time is to protect the politburo? And who performed the miraculous falling of the ax of death to Ka Oris and his medic?
Contrariwise, Ka Oris’s wife, Myrna Sularte alias Maria Malaya, came up with a different story, that there were no air strikes and no encounter. Instead, her ailing husband and the medic were both armless, riding a motorcycle on their way to the town of Impasug-ong at about 8 p.m. of October 29 to seek medical treatment when both were ambushed by the military.
If this is true that the sickly Madlos and companion were both unarmed and not in a position to engage in gunfight, then both were murdered in cold-blood by the operating military, which could be a blatant violation to the International Humanitarian Law.
And the shameful lie therefore cannot attract Madlos's comrades to come down, instead creating ripples from peace-loving communities.
No doubt, the military intelligence is superb and worthy of admiration for this achievement in either of the two stories.
But if the latter tale of Madlos’s death is true, the military cannot claim it as a major accomplishment and victory, but makes a brand of general shame to the 4ID. (abrigodann@gmail.com)