ZAMBOANGA, Philippines -- Government forces ambushed a band of mutinous Moslem policemen Saturday, culminating a siege at a regional military camp that left a general, colonel and 14 renegades dead.
Military officials said 16 bodies were found in the seafront Camp Cawa-Cawa in Zamboanga, including the charred remains of regional police commander Brig. Gen. Eduardo Batalla and his aide, Col. Romeo Abendan. All the others killed were renegade policemen. About a dozen of the bodies were found in a mosque in the camp.
Two officers and six soldiers were wounded on the government side in the battle in which three buildings in the regional command of the Philippine Constabulary headquarters were razed.
'We have gained full control of the Recom 9 headquarters,' said armed forces spokesman Col. Oscar Florendo in Manila Saturday afternoon. 'There is no sign of Alih's followers or of Alih himself. They were either killed or burned.'
A 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. curfew was clamped on Zamboanga as officials patrolled the area for Alih's men, who were originally estimated to number from 40 to 60, mostly soldiers and policemen armed with rifles, mortars and grenades.
The government has been fighting a Moslem separatist rebellion in the southern Philippines that has left more than 100,000 people dead since it erupted in the largely Roman Catholic country in 1972.
Abendan was identified through his ring and Batalla through the star he received from President Corazon Aquino when he was promoted just before Christmas, officials said.
Eight Moslem policemen led by Patrolman Rizal Alih took Batalla and Abendan as hostages Thursday when the lawmen were told they were being arrested for the 1984 murder of Zamboanga Mayor Cesar Climaco.
The Moslems demanded a getaway helicopter, but troops launched an assault 28 hours later after learning Batalla and Abendan had been killed and armed relatives began joining Alih, officials said.
'You cannot just kill a general and get away with it,' said armed forces chief Gen. Renato de Villa shortly before he left Zamboanga, 500 miles south of Manila.
In a statement released in Manila, Aquino said she was shocked and grieved by the killing of Batalla and Abendan who she said 'refused to leave the side of his superior officer and bravely shared his terrible fate.'
'We grieve for the grave setback that this event has dealt to the cause of national reconciliation and peace,' Aquino said.
Florendo said the assault was launched by officials fearing the mutiny in the sensitive area would get out of hand.
In Isabela town in Basilan island across the causeway from Zamboanga, armed men believed to be Moslem separatists attacked a remote Marine detachment Saturday. The military said seven Marine troopers were killed and two others were wounded but could not say if the attack was related to the incident in Zamboanga.