2 Marines tortured first before beheading - doc

Two of 10 Marines found beheaded and mutilated following a clash with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in Basilan last July 10 were tortured before they were killed, a doctor who did the autopsy on the servicemen said Monday. Dr Nilo Barandino told GMA News the victims sustained wounds and bruises in the face which they would sustain only if they were sill alive. “One of the Marines had a black eye in the right eye. His jaw was perverted toward the left and the bridge of the nose was broken toward the right side. These were accompanies by hematoma," Barandino said. “If this was done to a dead person, there would have been no more blood circulation and thus no swelling," he added. The doctor he thinks the two soldiers were wounded when they were tortured. The Philippine Marine Corps tapped Barandino to conduct the autopsy and he submitted his report Monday morning. He said the other eight soldiers were already dead when they were mutilated. He narrated that the remains of the 10 Marines who were beheaded and mutilated arrived in batches. The first to arrive were the bodies of four soldiers, then, three heads and four bodies, and the last, seven heads and six bodies. Barandino told GMA News that he feels for the family of the soldiers because his family was also kidnapped in 1992. The doctor said he thought that the offensive operation should continue. “They are just giving time to the perpetrators to bury their firearms, to live with civilians and leave the area," he said. Meanwhile, the fact-finding committee concluded their investigation in Basilan 3 p.m. Sunday and went to Zamboanga around 5 p.m. to continue their probe there. The committee questioned some 20 individuals in their three-day closed door interrogation in the province. “Most of them are from the MILF," Brigadier General Edgardo Gurrea said. On the other hand, the Armed Forces of the Philippines has continue beefing up its forces in Basilan. The 4th Company of the 1st Scout Ranger Regiment and the 3rd battalion of 7th Special Forces of Philipppine Army from Sulu arrived in the province on Saturday. The Marines were killed following a seven-hour clash with MILF members last July 10 in Tipo-tipo town while they were searching for Italian priest Giancarlo Bossi, who was kidnapped last June 10. The military initially tagged the Abu Sayyaf Group, a terrorist band blamed for a series of kidnappings and bombings, but the MILF owned up to what it called a "legitimate encounter." Bossi was freed in Lanao del Norte on July 19. The MILF has vehemently disowned the beheadings and maintains its forces killed 23 Marines. The Moro rebel group has also said five of its members and a Muslim cleric died in the firefight. The government and the 11,000-strong MILF have been trying to forge a peace accord but talks have stalled on the issue of ancestral domain or how much territory to include in a proposed Moro homeland. The Basilan clash has caused tension to rise. -GMANews.TV