ZAMBOANGA CITY, 3 March 2005 — Soldiers engaged in combat on the southern island of Jolo have been ordered to wear bulletproof vests after dozens of troops were killed and wounded in battle last month, a military spokesman said yesterday.

Lt. Col. Buenaventura Pascual said not all troops are equipped with the vests but those who have the equipment would be ordered to use them all the time in combat.

Some 30 soldiers were killed and 76 wounded in the battles between government forces and supporters of jailed Muslim politician Nur Misuari and alleged allies from the militant group Abu Sayyaf.

Officials have said a total of 130 people, including troops, rebels and civilians, were killed in fighting that subsided last week as militants retreated and disappeared amid a massive military offensive.

Yesterday, troops began searching for rebels who disguised themselves as refugees and civilians to evade arrest in the island, Pascual said.

Most of the Jolo military casualties were not wearing bulletproof vests, either because the vests were not provided or the soldiers refused to wear the gear because these were heavy and impeded their movement, Pascual said.

“We need to change the attitude of the soldier and provide him with orientation on the use of this equipment,” he said.

Only a “limited number of units” were equipped with vests, and there was peer pressure even within those units to avoid using them, he said.

“For example, if you are an official of the unit and your soldier does not have one, you will be ashamed of wearing it. That’s the point,” Pascual said. “Your private would regard you as a coward.”

However, Pascual said vests really were needed in “close-quarter battles.”

Among the dead was Lt. Col. Dennis Villanueva, a battalion commander who succumbed to blood loss from shrapnel wounds after a mortar attack, Pascual said. Villanueva’s replacement as commander was wounded.

Frontline Hospital

Partly as a result of Villanueva’s death, a medical team would now be stationed closer to the front line, at the brigade-level tactical command post, Pascual said.

The change means that “if a soldier is wounded, he is immediately evacuated from the area using an armored vehicle to the brigade tactical command post, which would be within three to five kilometers of the combat zone,” Pascual told reporters.

After receiving first aid from the command post, a helicopter would be scrambled to ferry the casualty to the Jolo airport, he said.

Pascual said the tactical changes were proposed during an inspection visit to Jolo by armed forces chief of staff Gen. Efren Abu.

At least six army and marine battalions fought several hundred supporters of Misuari and his allies.

After two weeks of fighting, government forces occupied a camp previously held by the gunmen late last month, but the rebels escaped.

“The rebels buried their weapons, disguised themselves as civilians and then mingled with villagers, while others pose as refugees and believed to be among those in government shelters in Jolo, but we will find them and arrest them,” he told Arab News.

Jolo military commander Brig. Gen. Agustin Dema-ala said government agents were tracking down the rebels and that civilians have volunteered to help authorities by providing information about suspicious men in their villages.

“We have deployed soldiers to track down these rebels and villagers are also helping us now. The civilians are giving us information on suspected rebels hiding in their communities. There is no way out, but to surrender peacefully,” Dema-ala said.

Soldiers continue to pursue the rebels under Habier Malik, largely blamed for the killing of more than two dozen soldiers in two weeks of fierce fighting in Jolo, about 950 kilometers south of Manila.

The military said more than 100 rebels were killed in the clashes that began Feb. 7 after Malik’s group simultaneously attacked military posts on the island to avenge the death of a Muslim couple and their 14-year old son, who were killed by troops during clashes with the militant Abu Sayyaf group. Malik said the trio were civilians and not members of the Abu Sayyaf.

Police on Tuesday said it would file criminal charges against Malik, a follower of detained ex-MNLF leader Nur Misuari who is facing rebellion charges in Manila.

The military said the rebels had planned the attacks to force the government to free Misuari. It said the rebels had forged an alliance with the Al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group in Jolo. But the MNLF denied links with the Abu Sayyaf, blamed for three deadly bombings Feb. 14 in the southern port cities of General Santos and Davao and in Manila that left 11 people dead and more than 100 wounded.