By Mike G. Kulat
Four more civilians, all women were victims of indiscriminate air strikes from the Armed Forces of the Philippines' OV-10 bombers in Maguindanao areas.
In an interview conducted by members of the Tiyakap Kalilintad of the Consortium of Bangsamoro Civil Society with the victims, it was learned that Hadja Sapia Samad together with seven other members of the family were inside their house in Barangay Liyab, Mamasapano in Maguindanao Province when two OV-10 bombers started to dropped bombs in their community. The first bomb dropped a few meters away from their house but did not explode at around 2:40 PM on November 18, 2008.
The immediate reaction of the family was to vacate their house fearing that the next bomb to be dropped will already hit their house. So the whole family members ran and hide under the coconut trees thinking they will be safe. The bomber planes were able to drop and explode around eight bombs in the area and to their surprise, the next bomb exploded a couple of meters away from where they were hiding. The bombing was followed by long burst of machine gun fires from same war planes.
As a result, Hadja Sapia Samad; Fatima Kamensa, 12 year old; Hadja Zahra Zangkala, 43 year old; Sarah Samad, 23 years old and 5-month pregnant all sustained wounds in different parts of their bodies from a bomb splinters. They were immediately brought to a Rural Clinic in Poblacion Datu Piang, Maguindanao for medication. The bombing also resulted to the evacuation of all the residents of Barangay Liyab that added to the continuously increasing number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in different parts of the province.
On August 19, 2008 at between 7:00 AM to 9:00 AM, a group of men believed to be military men as manifested by their military uniforms arrived in the Rural Clinic and tried to convince the victims to be transferred and treated at Camp Siongco Military Hospital in Awang, Datu Odin Sinsuat, Shariff Kabunsuan.
The victims highly doubted on the intention to transfer them into a military hospital and so they refused the offer. On this, accordingly the military instead instructed the victims that when they are asked about their plight they should deny that they were hit by bombs instead claim to be victims of crossfire.
Tiyakap Kalilintad members who conducted the interviews also asked several residents if there were encounters occurred in the area on that date or the previous days but they denied any otherwise they could have vacated the area.
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