By Fernan Angeles
POLICEMEN involved in the Jolo carnage last June said on Wednesday that they mistook the four army intelligence officers for members of the terrorist Abu Sayyaf group.
Appearing before the Senate panel investigating what many referred to as cold-blooded carnage, one of the nine cops facing murder charges over the death of four army intelligence officers claimed he just happened to be at the scene and shot one of the soldiers, thinking they were Abu Sayyaf members or drug lords.
At the Senate hearing, Police Staff Sergeant Iskandar Susulan said he was not even among the group of policemen who tailed the vehicle of Major Marvin Indammog, the leader of the 4-member Army intelligence team who were all killed in the incident. He said he was at the Jolo Municipal Police Station when he saw the police vehicles passed by.
He said he approached them to check what was happening, when the shooting started.
“Nasa isip ko po, Abu Sayyaf o drug lord (I thought they were Abu Sayyaf members or drug lords),” Susulan said during the Senate legislative probe on the incident on Wednesday, August 19.
Susulan admitted having fired shots.
An angry Senator dela Rosa, himself a retired police officer said: “Di mo na-identify kung sino ang kalaban, nakiputok ka pa,”
Aside from murder, the Jolo cops have also been charged separately for planting of evidence with regards to the Jolo shooting incident.
The four Army intelligence officers were shot dead by policemen after they were stopped at a checkpoint and ordered to go to the Jolo police station.
The shooting incident happened after the soldiers parked their vehicle a little past the police station, and the cops who tailed them alighted and confronted them.
Susulan further claimed that when he got to the crime scene, he already saw three persons shot down by his fellow policemen colleagues – but then a passenger seat opened and another man allegedly carrying an Uzi submachine gun stepped out and apparently tried to shoot them.
“Nagkabulagaan po kami…. Ako po ang nasa tamang anggulo…. Naunahan ko po siya (We were caught by surprise…. I was at the right angle…. I was able to shoot him first),” Susulan said.
Susulan identified the man he shot as Captain Irwin Managuelod.
However, Susulan’s statement doesn’t seem consistent with the findings of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), which took lead in the probe ordered by President Rodrigo Duterte.
Lawyer Zulikha Degamo of the NBI Death Investigation Unit, insisted that the police shot three of the four soldiers from their SUV, including Managuelod, making it impossible for him to step out.
NBI added that the only soldier shot dead outside was Indammog, the leader of the Army intelligence officers.