Senior Superintendent Jose Chiquito Malayo, who previously headed the regional police intelligence, served barely a month as police chief when Moro National Liberation Front rebels launched simultaneous attacks on September 9.
Malayo’s deputy Superintendent Diomarie Albarico briefly served as acting police chief of Zamboanga and Senior Superintendent Dennis Basngi has been named as officer-in-charge of the local police force.
But Chief Inspector Ariel Huesca, a regional spokesman, said Malayo’s relief was part of an administrative process.
Malayo, assumed as the city police chief only in July, after Senior Superintendent Edwin de Ocampo was also sacked due to the spate of killings and gun attacks in Zamboanga.
He was also the subject of complaints by radio reporters, who accused him of harassment, after they were intercepted by Malayo’s group during curfew hours, despite a “curfew pass” issued by the Crisis Management Committee headed by Mayor Maria Isabella Salazar, and media cards issued by their employer.
The reporters, who work for dxRZ Radyo Agong, were on a coverage when police stopped them and told them to go to areas held by rebels and take video clips of the gunmen and show it to him as a proof they are members of the media.
Malayo was also reported captured by separatist rebels in the village of Mampang on September 17 by the mayor, but he surfaced later – along with 23 MNLF gunmen led by Commander Usong Ugong – to say that he was never held hostage, but went to the area to negotiate for the rebels’ surrender.
Ugong said they were rebels based in nearby province of Basilan and had been duped by the MNLF into going to Zamboanga to join a peace parade, but ended up hiding in a mangrove area after fighting erupted.
Malayo said the rebels would be given safe passage back to Basilan, including the return of their weapons as part of the deal for their surrender.
But other reports claimed Ugong’s group was allegedly paid or working for a politician who sent the gunmen to Zamboanga to pose as surrenderees to demoralize the ranks of the rebel group and as a media propaganda.
Ugong’s group also met inside a tightly guarded military bases here with Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, Police Director General Alan Purisima, Western Mindanao Command General Rey Ardo and Philippine Army General Emmanuel Bautista.
The allegations cannot be independently confirmed, but the MNLF has disowned Ugong’s group.
Rebel forces led by Ustadz Khabir Malik stormed several villages in Zamboanga and took over 200 people hostage and used them as shield against pursuing soldiers and authorities said almost all captives had been freed or rescued.
It was not immediately known whether the military would also relieve Ardo for his failure to prevent the attacks. The fighting has displaced over 100,000 people and has resulted in a humanitarian crisis.
Clashes seized just recently, but clearing operations continue in at least five villages that rebels occupied. There were unconfirmed reports that Malik escaped the military dragnet along with his trusted men and were either in Basilan or Sulu provinces, both stronghold of the MNLF rebels.
MNLF chieftain Nur Misuari, who signed a peace accord with Manila in 1996, accused the Aquino government of reneging on the peal deal and launched a new rebellion, the second in more than a decade. In 2001, loyal forces of Misuari also attacked military bases in Zamboanga City and Jolo town in Sulu province and the clashes killed over 100 people. (Mindanao Examiner)
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