The Camp Cawa-Cawa siege (

Filipino Filipino may refer to: * Something from or related to the Philippines ** Filipino language, standardized variety of 'Tagalog', the national language and one of the official languages of the Philippines. ** Filipinos, people who are citizens of th ...

: ''Pagkubkob sa Kampo Cawa-Cawa'',

Chavacano Chavacano or Chabacano is a group of Spanish-based creole language varieties spoken in the Philippines. The variety spoken in Zamboanga City, located in the southern Philippine island group of Mindanao, has the highest concentration of speaker ...

: ''Sitio de Campo Cawa-Cawa'') was a

siege A siege is a military blockade of a city, or fortress, with the intent of conquering by attrition, or a well-prepared assault. This derives from la, sedere, lit=to sit. Siege warfare is a form of constant, low-intensity conflict characteriz ...

of a

Philippine Constabulary The Philippine Constabulary (PC; tl, Hukbóng Pamayapà ng Pilipinas, ''HPP''; es, Policía de Filipinas, ''PF'') was a gendarmerie-type police force of the Philippines from 1901 to 1991, and the predecessor to the Philippine National Po ...

Integrated National Police The Integrated National Police (INP) (Filipino: ''Pinagsamang Pulisyáng Pambansà'', ''PPP''; Spanish:''Policía Nacional Conjunto'', ''PNC'') was the municipal police force for the cities and large towns of the Republic of the Philippines. One ...

camp by

security force Security forces are statutory organizations with internal security mandates. In the legal context of several nations, the term has variously denoted police and military units working in concert, or the role of military and paramilitary forces (s ...

s of the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

on January 3–5, 1989, after a rogue policeman took the camp's ranking officer hostage.

Events

Rizal Alih, a patrolman, and several other men had been detained pending an investigation into their alleged involvement in the murder of Zamboanga City Mayor Cesar Climaco on 14 November 1984. Gen. Eduardo Batalla, the regional commander of the PC-INP who had his office at the camp, had made a decision to have the detained men transferred to

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...

; however, Alih refused to cooperate. Batalla had summoned the men to his office for a conference, but the talks degenerated into a heated exchange with both parties shouting at each other. Alih and his companions were able to over-power their guards and took Batalla, his aide Col. Romeo Abendan and several others hostage. After a 3-day siege,

Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines The Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (CSAFP) is the highest-ranking military officer (except for the President of the Philippines, who holds the position of Commander-in-Chief equivalent to a five-star general) and the head ...

Renato de Villa Renato "Rene" Salud de Villa (born July 20, 1935) is a Filipino former police and military officer and government official. He served as Chief of Philippine Constabulary, Director-General of the Integrated National Police, and Chief of Staff of ...

ordered that the camp be assaulted. Philippine security forces decided to attack the camp using

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

Rockets A rocket (from it, rocchetto, , bobbin/spool) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using the surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely ...

deployed from the aircraft set fire to the building where Gen. Batalla was being held and it burned to the ground. Batalla, Abendan and 18 other PC/INP personnel were later found burned to death. Alih managed to escape the ruined camp, making his way to

Basilan Basilan, officially the Province of Basilan ( cbk, Provincia de Basilan; yka, Wilayah Basilanin; tsg, Wilaya' sin Basilan; fil, Lalawigan ng Basilan), is an island province of the Philippines located primarily in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Reg ...

and eventually Sabah, Malaysia.

Aftermath

Alih was arrested by

69 Commando The 69 Commando (, Jawi: ٦٩ كومندو); also known as Very Able Troopers 69 (abbreviation: VAT 69) is an elite multi-tasking special forces unit of the Royal Malaysia Police. The VAT 69 is based at Ulu Kinta, Perak and together with Spec ...

from

Royal Malaysia Police The Royal Malaysia Police (often abbreviated RMP) ( ms, Polis Diraja Malaysia (PDRM)), is a (primarily) uniformed national and federal police force in Malaysia. The force is a centralised organisation. Its headquarters are located at Bukit Aman ...

on July 21 1994 in Sandakan, Sabah and charged with illegal possession of firearms. He was

extradited Extradition is an action wherein one jurisdiction delivers a person accused or convicted of committing a crime in another jurisdiction, over to the other's law enforcement. It is a cooperative law enforcement procedure between the two jurisdi ...

back to the Philippines in 2006. He was detained in

Camp Crame Camp General Rafael T. Crame () is the national headquarters of the Philippine National Police (PNP) located along Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (EDSA) in Quezon City. It is situated across EDSA from Camp Aguinaldo, the national headquarters o ...

and died in the camp's hospital on 14 August 2015 after complaining of chest pains. He was buried the next day in Zamboanga City.

Commemoration

The Philippine National Police commemorates the deaths of Gen. Batalla and Col. Abendan every year. Camp Cawa-Cawa itself was renamed Camp Brigadier General Eduardo B Batalla, and another Philippine National Police camp in Mercedes, Zamboanga City was named Camp Colonel Romeo A. Abendan in honor of the slain police officers.

In popular culture

A film depicting the siege, '' Arrest: Pat. Rizal Alih – Zamboanga Massacre'', was released on March 8, 1989. Directed by

Carlo J. Caparas Carlo Magno Jose Caparas (born December 15, 1948) is a Filipino comic strip creator and writer-turned film director and producer. He is best known for creating such Filipino superheroes and comic book characters as ''Panday'', '' Bakekang'' ...

, it stars

Ramon Revilla Ramon Bautista Revilla Sr. (born Jose Acuña Bautista; March 8, 1927 – June 26, 2020), popularly known simply as Ramon Revilla Sr., was a Filipino actor who served as Senator of the Republic of the Philippines. He was known as the "''Hari ng ...

as Rizal Alih and

Eddie Garcia Eduardo Verchez Garcia (; May 2, 1929 – June 20, 2019), known colloquially as Manoy, was a Filipino actor, television personality, film director and producer. With almost 600 film and television roles and a career spanning seven decades, he ...

as Brig. Gen. Eduardo Batalla.

References

{{Reflist 1989 in the Philippines Presidency of Corazon Aquino History of the Philippines (1986–present) Sieges involving the Philippines