Officials said military interrogators were investigating the soldiers, who are members of the 9th Infantry Battalion, at the Western Mindanao Command in Zamboanga City.
They were arrested and disarmed after fellow soldiers reported the looting to their commander. The soldiers allegedly ransacked the house of a local politician in Santa Catalina village, scene of deadly clashes between troops and Moro National Liberation Front rebels.
Reports said the soldiers took assorted jewelleries and other valuable things and also tried to open a vault left in the house.
The politician did not answer phone calls by journalists, but an army official said the soldiers could be expelled from the army if they are proven guilty of all accusations and eventually charge in a civil court.
“The soldiers are now confined in Western Mindanao Command where they are being interrogated,” the official said. “It is really sad that some soldiers were accused of looting a house while others are risking their life fighting the rebels and protecting civilians.”
The soldiers, whose battalion is under the 9th Infantry Division, were sent here from the Bicol region to help augment hundreds of troops fighting Moro National Liberation Front rebels who stormed several villages on September 9.
Residents were so angry by the news of soldiers looting the house that some of them even left their messages to the Twitter account of the local government used in dispatching emergency bulletins and alerts.
“Huwag puro MNLF ang pagbintangan ninyo. Sundalo ninyo inuubos, ninanakawan ang mga civilians,” reads one message.
Another message said: “Clearing operations and clearing all of our stuffs at the same time, such an unlawful act. Shame on those people in uniform.”
“Yeah, hindi pa tapos yan clearing operation kasi hindi pa tapos pagnakawan at sunugin ang mga kabahayan,” one message reads.
Mayor Maria Isabelle Salazar said skirmishes were continuing in Zamboanga and that troops are clearing Santa Catalina and three other villages – Santa Barbara, Rio Hondo and Mariki.
“Ipinapaabot sa mga mamamayan ng Zamboanga na hindi pa pinapayagang bumalik ang mga pamilyang naninirahan sa Sta. Barbara, Sta. Catalina, Rio Hondo at Mariki. Ang mga lugar na ito ay delikado pa dahil sa mga bomba na ikinalat ng MNLF at kasalukuyan pang nililinis ng ating mga kasundaluhan,” she said. (Mindanao Examiner)
20