ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Jan. 5, 2014) – Contrary to published media reports, police said the bodies of eight fishermen recovered off Zamboanga City are all intact and not beheaded, although the corpses were all decomposing when retrieved from a wooden boat that drifted near Sacol Island.
Police said the fishermen were killed by pirates off Zamboanga Sibugay province on December 26. One fisherman is still missing and believed killed also and thrown to the sea. Two others – Loloy Ampasali, 22, and Muksi Ampasali, 16 – survived the carnage and were brought to hospital in Zamboanga City, according to Captain Jefferson Somera, a spokesman for the 1st Infantry Division.
Chief Inspector Ariel Huesca, a regional police spokesman, said: “The bodies of the eight fishermen are all intact and not beheaded. The bodies are decomposing when receovered from a wooden boat that drifted near Sacol Island.”
Huesca identified the bodies as that of Mursid Ambasali, Jimmy Sannayani, Benjie Sannayani, Piyad Sannayani, Palaji Sannayani, Jeffrey Sannayani, Palari Buyong and Maastal Jaolani – all residents of Sitio Seaside in the coastal village of Sangali here.
No individual claimed responsibility for the killing of the fishermen, but Huesca said the attack was probably in retaliation to the killing of a pirate by fishermen engaged in dynamite fishing in the area.
“We have a report that one pirate extorting from fishermen died from accidental blast and this started it all, but our investigation still continues to determine who were really behind the killing of the fishermen,” Huesca told the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.
The Badjao is among the peaceful tribes in southern Philippines and mostly engaged in fishing and mat weaving as their source of livelihood. They live mostly in boats off Zamboanga. (With a report from E. Dumabo)
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