Aida’s malong. MindaNews photo by Carolyn O. Arguillas

Aida, 18, the eldest child of Daya Manungal and Vilma Mandi, owned that malong. In four months, she was going to give birth to her first baby.

But she died instantaneously, her head almost severed, her right eye gouged out by shrapnel.

Maguindanaoans say it must have been “Kahandu nu Kadenan” (God’s will) or “bagi” (destiny).that Guiamaludin, 13, the eldest son, survived.

The third crater, 30 meters away from the kamalig. MindaNews photo by Carolyn O. Arguillas

The blasts produced three huge craters, each measuring 1.5 meters to 1.8 meters in diameter and at least ¾ meter deep. Shrapnels were still found in the third crater some 30 meters away from the riverside kamalig.

The two craters to the right and  left of the kamalig. MindaNews photo by Carolyn O. Arguillas

One of the craters nearest the kamalig. As deep as the level of the raised short pants. MindaNews photo by Carolyn O. Arguillas

Two of the craters are on the riverbank itself, about three meters apart, very close to the kamalig. The kamalig was not burned. Whatever exploded nearby was not incendiary.

Part of the boat. MindaNews photo by Carolyn O. Arguillas

A fragment from the ill-fated banca lay on the ground. Nearby, the detachable bamboo seat, on top of which is what appears like a cloth–wrapped makeshift “cushion.”

Blood on the cloth and on Aida’s malong has since faded but not totally rinsed off by rain.

The stench of death still blows across this vast marshland.

Four minutes to safety

They had traveled some 800 meters from Sitio Dagaren in Barangay Tee, and had only about 800 meters more (not 500 to 600 meters as earlier estimated by MindaNews) to reach Butalo bridge and the highway.

On a “pumpboat” – in these parts, actually a small but motorized banca —  it is a two-minute and thirty-second ride to the death site from the bridge, but four minutes from the site to the bridge.

Daya knew they were four minutes to safety.  But he had to stop, relatives said, because the boat’s engine had malfunctioned.

 Daya apparently feared more the possibility of sinking than being mistaken for rebels from the air. The boat had more children than adults. Their clothes were multi-colored. Guiamaludin wore a bright golden yellow shirt.

On such a beautiful morning, even those along the highway could tell the approaching boats carried civilians, as they and the barangay captain asked soldiers on ready-fire position at Butalo bridge, to hold their fire. The soldiers held their fire.

View of the kamalig as boat approaches it from Butalo bridge. Daya was coming towards the bridge when he steered the boat towards the kamalig in the pawas. MindaNews photo by Carolyn O. Arguillas

Daya steered the boat towards the  pawas,  instructing his children —  the pregnant Aida, 18; Guiamaludin, 13, Bailyn,  9; Zukarudin, 7; Adtayan, 5 and Faidza, 2 -  to wait in the kamalig..

View of the kamalig as boat departs site for Butalo bridge. MindaNews photo by Carolyn O. Arguillas

They never reached the kamalig.

Guiamaludin recalls that just as they had disembarked from the banca and taken two to three steps through the mud, they were thrown away by the blasts.

He could not say how far away he was thrown off.

Guiamaludin, the lone survivor from his father’s boat. MindaNews photo by Carolyn O. Arguillas

When he looked around, his siblings and his father were either dead or dying.

Ten to 15 meters away, still cruising the river, the terrified occupants of the other boat screamed and cried as the bombs exploded. Vilma, Daya’s wife, held on tightly to her 16-day old baby, Fairudz and children Bainor, 11, and Tata, 4.

Mohalidin Unsi, Aida’s husband, was frantic. In four months, they would be having their first baby.

Shrapnels were still found in the third crater. The bigger ones had been taken by the police, villagers from the highway said.  MindaNews photo by Carolyn O. Arguillas

Mohalidin had no time to grieve when he reached the bank and saw his lifeless wife.

“Pinulot nya raw yung mga body” (He said he collected the bodies) and put them on the boat, to bring them to Butalo bridge, Noraisa Mandi, Aida’s aunt, said.

Noraisa said that as Mohalidin was counting and collecting the bodies, he was shouting to the planes overhead to stop bombing.

Mohalidin narrated how his father in law, Daya, groaned in pain. But when he came back for him, said Noraisa, Daya was gone. He had fallen into the river. His body was recovered the next day.

Detachable bamboo seat. MindaNews photo by Carolyn O. Arguillas

Mohalidin told a press conference in Cotabato City four days later that he doesn’t remember how many bombs exploded that morning. In his limited Pilipino, he said, “di ko kayang bilangin, basta marami” (I can’t count how many, but plenty) 

Of  those on board Daya’s boat, only Guiamaludin survived. Bailyn was rushed to Dulawan, the town’s center, and would have been rushed along with Guiamaludin, to the regional hospital in Cotabato City, 54 kilometers away.

She never made it to Cotabato. Bailyn expired in Dulawan.

Last meal

Guiamaludin never expected he would have his buka (meal to break the fast)  in a hospital in Cotabato City where he was brought for surgery for shrapnel wounds on both legs and other parts of his body.

The family shared their saul (meal before fasting)  at 3 in the morning of September 8, the 8^th day of the Ramadhan.

It was to be their last meal together.

At 5 a.m. Guiamaludin, who had become a fisherman since he stopped schooling after the second grade, set out on his banca to fish while his father Daya and brother-in-law Mohalidin, went shrimping, separately.

For a family of 13 (Daya and Vilma and their nine children; and Mohalidin and Aida who stayed in the same house with them), the men had to ensure there was food on the table for the little ones, and for the adults’ buka that night and the saul the next morning.

It had only been a week since they returned home in Sitio Dagaren. On the third week of August, they fled to Butalo, to avoid getting caught in a crossfire between government forces and the MILF.

They had been doing this daily routine for a week now when the planes came. It was a sign for them to flee again.

Guiamaludin recalls seeing four planes. Mohalidin says he saw seven – helicopters, OV-10 Broncos and planes he could not identify. (The Philippine Air Force later said the aircraft that flew were helicopters, OV-10 Broncos and Layang or SF-260 Warriors). 

From where they were, Daya, Guiamaludin and Mohalidin all rushed home, got the children and boarded their “pumpboats” for Butalo.

Bainor had boarded her father’s boat when Daya asked Aida to trade places with her.

It wasn’t in the rush that Daya and his wife Vilma boarded separate boats. It was deliberate, Noraisa said.

Daya had made sure Vilma took another boat and that Aida and Mohalidin took separate boats.

Noraisa explained this was Daya’s way of ensuring “may maiwan” (someone will be left behind should anything untoward happen).

Before the morning ended, only Guiamaludin survived from Daya’s boat.  Vilma survived with Bainor, Tala and the infant Fairudz. Mohalidin lost his wife and the baby in her womb.

“Extremely necessary”

The military’s Information Coordination Center on September 9 quoted Col. Marlou Salazar, commander of the Army’s 601^st Infantry Brigade as saying his troops were in Barangay Tee “based on civilian reports that Wahid Tundok, Kato’s right hand man, and possibly (Umbra) Kato himself, were in the area.”

“As the troops entered the barangay, they were met by gunfire from the MILF forces in the area. Heavy exchange of fires between the forces commenced at around 9:55 a.m.,” Salazar said.

On the same day, Air Force spokesperson Maj. Gerardo Zamudio, told MindaNews “three possibilities” - that civilians could have been caught in a crossfire during the “intense firefight” between the ground troops and the MILF; that they were caught in the crossfire during the air and river fighting between the Air Force and the rebels allegedly on a pumpboat; and that the slain civilians were not killed during either firefight but elsewhere.

Daya and his five children were killed in the pawas where they disembarked, halfway between Sitio Dagaren and Butalo bridge.

Air Force Chief Lieutenant-General Pedrito Cadungog told reporters in Manila on September 10 that the pilots were shot at, “so what do you do? Rules of engagement compel that you fire back,” he said, stressing that in combat, “moments of indecision can kill you also.”

Vilma, Mohalidin and Guiamaludin claim there was no exchange of gunfire before the blasts. Residents along the highway some 800 meters from the blast site said they heard no exchange of gunfire before the explosions. Military sources told MindaNews that gunfire exchange over such a wide expanse of river and marshland can be heard up to five to seven kilometers away at daytime and up to 10 kilometers at nighttime.

The Commission on Human Rights said it has directed its regional office in Mindanao to investigate what happened. “Children as collateral damage is unacceptable,” CHR chair Leila de Lima said.

”There was no bombing,” Zamudio told MindaNews on September 16.

Guideline 2 of the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ “Tactical Adjustments on Military Operations During Ramadhan,” states that “tactically, artillery and air strikes will be minimized as much as practicable.”

”Nonetheless,” it added, “field commanders are not prevented to proportionately employ such firepower when extremely necessary in addressing imminent threats from an overwhelming LMG force.”

“LMG” is military parlance for “Lawless MILF Group,” referring to renegades in the MILF like Kato and Bravo, who, the MILF leadership maintains, is still within their control.

Zamudio stressed the pilots merely fired back because they were fired upon by the rebels.

He said rockets were used on them, not bombs

“Do rockets produce craters?” MindaNews asked.

“There are craters?” Zamudio asked. (Carolyn O. Arguillas/MindaNews for Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project)

As Vilma’s son-in-law, Mohalidin Unsi, also began to sob, the Bangsamoro Youth Leaders’ Forum, the organizers of the press conference, quickly turned off the Powerpoint Presentation of photographs and video footage of what happened here Monday morning of September 8.

It took some time for Vilma and Mohalidin to regain composure, Vilma, especially, because since Monday, she has had to recount the tragedy of losing an entire family, before investigators, NGO representatives and relief workers, neighbors and the media. She had just visited her son, 13-year old Guiamaludin, who is recuperating from leg wounds. Immediately after the press conference, she was going to rush back to Datu Piang to breastfeed her newly-born,  Fairudz,  a survivor of war.

Fairudz was 16 days old  when she lost her father and five siblings.

Vilma and Mohalidin stressed “there was no firefight” in Barangay Tee early that morning as the military alleged. “The planes just came and fired away.”

“There was no encounter between government and MILF (Moro Islamic Liberation Front) forces. The planes suddenly arrived and bombed the pumpboat,”  Vilma said in Maguindanao.

”There was no encounter. The planes just suddenly came,” Mohalidin said.  He counted “three double-bodies (apparently referring to Layang or SF 260); two OV-10s and two helicopters.”

In the rush to flee Barangay Tee, Vilma, who was carrying her baby, Fairudz, and Mohalidin, got separated from the rest of the family and boarded another “pumpboat” (actually a small motorized banca) towards this barangay, at least a kilometer from the highway).

Their boats were at the tailend of a convoy. How many boats were in the convoy, neither Vilma nor Mohalidin could say.

Vilma’s boat was 10 to 15 meters away from the boat carrying her husband, Daya Manunggal, and their six children – the pregnant Aida, Guiamaludin,  Bailyn, Zukarudin,  Adtayan and Faidza — when a bomb – or a rocket fired from the sky – exploded near the boat.

Only Guiamaluddin survived from that boat. His eldest sister and three younger siblings died instantly. Another sister, Bailyn, died on the way to the hospital in Cotabato City, some 54 kilometers away. Daya’s body was recovered the next day.

Mohalidin said Daya, apparently fearing the boat would capsize because of their number and because a sack of rice was also loaded on it, stopped at an  “island” (a small land mass) with about two or three huts, and had just asked his children to disembark when the something exploded a few meters away.

Mohalidin counted seven aircraft hovering when villagers rushed to their small motorized bancas, to flee Tee for “safer grounds” in Butilen, across the marshland. In the third week of August, the start of the renewed hostilities between government and the MILF, the Mandi-Manungal family had fled Sitio Dagaren in Barangay Tee for sanctuary in Barangay  Butalo and returned home on September 1.

Mohalidin  doesn’t remember how many bombs exploded the morning they sought refuge from war.  In his limited Pilipino, he said, “di ko kayang bilangin, basta marami” (I can’t count how many, but plenty)

Zainar Mukalan, who lives close to the highway and Butalo bridge, told MindaNews  there was no exchange of gunfire before the bombs were dropped.

Military sources say the exchange of gunfire in a setting such as a vast marshland, can be heard from as far as five to seven kilometers away at daytime or 10 kilometers at nighttime.

Zainar, in his 50s, says the planes came at around 9 a.m. but did not fire until around 10. He said he heard three explosions, one of which, he later learned, killed the children.

The view from the highway beside Zaimar’s house. Photo by CO Arguillas

From the back of his house and from the highway itself, one could get a good view of what was happening that morning.

The best vantage view was from the Butalo bridge, some 30 meters away from Zainar’s.house.

Zainar said soldiers stationed at the bridge, who could clearly see who was approaching along the river and the marshland, were on ready-fire position. None of them managed to fire, however, as residents and the barangay captain of Tee told asked them hold their fire as the convoy of at least five boats carrying villagers from Barangay Tee, was  approaching Butilen.

Zainar was from Barangay Tee himself but during an evacuation five years ago, opted to live here close to the highway, the bridge and the barangay hall of Tee (the barangay hall was moved from Tee to Butilen about a decade ago as more residents of Tee evacuated to Butilen. As of August 1, 2007, the National Statistics and Coordination Board recorded Tee’s population at 1,724 out of  Datu Piang’s 49,971).

Musib Uy Tan, the mayor’s executive assistant told MindaNews that reports reaching them also indicated that residents heard no exchange of gunfire before the bombings. 

The government’s Information Coordination Center on September 9 reported that military authorities denied Air Force planes dropped bombs in Barangay Tee.

“The government forces were continuing its limited operations against the forces of the rogue MILF leader Umbra Kato but were adopting an adjusted law enforcement operations in deference to Ramadhan.  Col. Marlou Salazar, the 601^st brigade commander, whose forces were involved in the military operations, said that the troops were in the barangay based on civilian reports that Wahid Tundok, Kato’s right hand man, and possibly Kato himself, were in the area. As the troops entered the barangay, they were met by gunfire from the MILF forces in the area. Heavy exchange of fires between the forces commenced at around 9:55 a.m,” the report said.

Towards dusk. Another view from the highway Photo by CO Arguillas

“Ground troops are still in the area and are engaged in sporadic firefights as they go through their clearing operations. The group commander of the air force planes that flew over Barangay Tee, Colonel Jojo Robles, likewise denied reports that bombs were used in the military operation,” the report said. 

The report noted that the “the helicopters, Layang (SF 260) planes and OV-10 planes were sent upon the request of the ground forces to assist them in their operations against the lawless MILF in the area.

Their mission, the report said,  was to conduct “persuasion” and “reconnaissance flights over the river and marsh areas “to assist the ground forces in locating and determining the involvement of the lawless MILF forces.”

“According to Col. Robles, initially, the Air Force helicopters and planes did not find the MILF troops on the river, marsh area and the ground so they were ordered to return to base.  However, on the way back, the Layang planes were fired upon by the MILF forces. Since the rules of engagement of the air forces is to retaliate if fired, upon, the planes fired back after verifying and confirming the location of the lawless MILF forces from the ground forces,”  the report said.  (Carolyn O. Arguillas/MindaNews)