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ATTY. MEL STA. MARIA: The advantage, questions, standard of a Corona testimony
InterAksyon.com
The online news portal of TV5
MANILA, Philippines -- President Benigno Aquino III ordered on Saturday the Armed Forces of the Philippines to give highest priority to pursuing the Abu Sayyaf members responsible for the killing and beheading of Marines in Sulu this week.
Relatives wait for the arrival of the caskets at the Villamor Air Base.
"I have ordered and challenged our armed forces to concentrate their resources here," Aquino said , speaking to reporters. The "highest order of battle" has been issued in pursuing the Abu Sayyaf men responsible, he said. "This has to be a priority case."
The president spoke after he and AFP chief of staff General Eduardo Oban received the remains of the Marines, who were extended full military honors at the Villamor Air base yesterday.
Fellow soldiers and officers do not mind the drizzle as they wait for their fallen comrades.
The president condoled with relatives of the fallen soldiers. A brief rainshower did not stop him and the AFP top brass from receiving the victims who were flown in from Sulu on a military C-130 aircraft.
Among those killed in action on July 28 during a firefight between the Abu Sayyaf and the soldiers in Patikul, Sulu, are Second Lieutenant Michael Baladad, Sergeant Desiderio Serdan, Corporal Claro Lapasaran, Corporal Ramsel Laynesa, Corporal Freddie Castellano, Private First Class Juanito Evasco, and Private First Class Nico Tinambunan.
One after the other, the caskets bearing the soldiers' remains are removed from the C-130 military plane.
As the C-130 arrived taxied on the tarmac, a drum-and-bugle corps started played the military hymn Aquino stood in the afternoon drizzle, showing sympathy with the bereaved members of the family.
After the blessing of the caskets bearing the fallen men, family members began to cry, specially as the children of the soldiers and the prayed over each of the casket.
On Friday, the president denounced the killing of the soldiers, several of whom where hacked and beheaded allegedly by the bandits.
The loved ones of the soldiers can't contain their grief.
“I condemn these atrocities that are meant to put pressure on the peace process - to derail our efforts to counteract the causes of banditry, rebellion, and terrorism. Let me be very clear: those who want neither peace nor progress are the ones who perpetrated this dastardly act,” Aquino said in a statement released by the Palace.
“Mark my words: to those of you who perpetrated this atrocity, know that you are now number one on my radar. It might take some time, but make no mistake about it: you will be brought to justice to answer for your crimes,” he added.
Children of the Marines salute their fathers.
The firefight was one of the worst this year and it occurred in a town known as a stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf, a band of extremists with alleged links to the terror network Jemaah Islamiyah and the terror group Al Qaeda.
The US military sent hundreds of troops beginning in 2002 to help the Philippine government eliminate the Abu Sayyaf, with the campaign focusing on Basilan and then Sulu, the two island provinces in the south where the group is said to operate much more actively.
President Aquino honors the soldiers with a salute and a pray over.
While both governments have boasted about their campaign against the Abu Sayyaf, the group remains a formidable security threat, launching attacks every now and then. The group is known for kidnapping rich Filipinos and foreigners, in some cases beheading some of them.
