Army probes shooting rampages involving militiamen

An investigation is underway into the three recent incidents of shooting rampages involving government militiamen that resulted in the deaths of more or less 10 people. Army chief Lt. Gen. Arturo Ortiz, who ordered the investigation, said the probe would identify measures that could be adopted to prevent a repeat of such “rare and unfortunate" incidents. “I have those rare and unfortunate incidents investigated as soon as possible to determine the cause and institute appropriate corrective measures to prevent similar occurrences," Ortiz said Tuesday. The Army is in charge of the recruitment and administration of the more or less 50,000 militiamen enlisted by the government to defend communities from threat groups. Sometimes they go with regular soldiers in combat operations. A series of unfortunate events Ortiz’s order came two days after Olegario Vocal Jr., a civilian volunteer, shot six of his colleagues in a shooting rampage inside a military detachment in Zamboanga Sibugay in southern Philippines. Vocal himself was killed by a composite team of soldiers and policemen that pursued him. Last October 14, a militiaman also ran amok at a wake in Pagsanjan town in Laguna, killing two civilians and injuring five others. The suspect, Teodollo Rizare, was immediately nabbed afterward. On Thursday last week, militiaman Jonard Aredidon also ran amok in Davao City, killing his 18-year-old live-in partner and his assistant detachment commander. Aredido fled and remains at large. Combat fatigue Army spokesman Col. Antonio Parlade said combat fatigue may have triggered these militiamen to commit their crimes. “As what the (Army chief) said, we are verifying the cause of the incidents," said Parlade, adding that similar incidents of militiamen running amuck in the past had been traced to battle fatigue. Parlade said the Army has a stress management program but this only covers the regular soldiers at the battalion and brigade levels. “Right now, it has yet to reach the level of the (Citizen Armed Force Geographical Unit) detachments," he said. “If we need to go down to the level of the Cafgu detachment and have this program called the stress management, we will do it . . . It has yet to reach the detachments of the Cafgus," he added. - KBK, GMANews.TV