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Ipil, a predominantly Catholic town, was the site of violence between Muslim insurgents and Christian vigilantes in 1972, the first battle of a 20-year Muslim insurrection on Mindanao that left more than 50,000 people dead. The ferocity of last week's attack surprised even followers of Abu Sayyaf. The group was previously thought to have only about 350 armed members, mostly on the smaller islands of Basilan and Jolo rather than Mindanao. After the Ipil slaughter, military-intelligence officers are convinced that Abu Sayyaf is receiving help from members of the country's two largest Muslim fighting groups, the Moro National Liberation Front and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which have a combined armed force of 15,000. The mnlf is engaged in peace negotiations with the Ramos government, talks that have so far yielded preliminary agreements between the two sides. Abu Sayyaf, which includes several grown children of Muslim separatists killed in the 1970s conflict, maintains that the peace talks betray the Muslim cause.
Few believe that Abu Sayyaf could have acted alone in unfamiliar territory, especially given the careful planning that preceded the assault. It began with a diversionary tactic at dawn Tuesday, when unidentified armed men attacked security guards at a gold mine 15 mi. outside the town. Colonel Roberto Santiago, the 102nd Brigade commander, sent his 40 best soldiers. At 12:30, with the garrison depleted, the killing began. Some residents, hearing gunshots, thought a fire had broken out: since there is only one telephone in town, Ipil's customary way to raise a fire alarm is to fire shots into the air. The gunmen, wearing black ninja hoods or blood-red neckerchiefs, fanned out through the town. The men killed a guard at the Allied Bank branch and emptied the tellers' drawers. When the assistant bank manager said he could not open the vault, they shot staff members and two remaining guards. Gunmen walked from store to store, often laughing, as they fired wildly and emptied cash registers.
"One man was drinking a Coke with one hand and shooting his AK-47 into shops with the other," recalled a resident. The killers came to Jeffrey Agtoto's family store twice; when he told the second group that his cash had already been taken, they killed him. Efren Pascualado, a young pastor, was shot in the leg. "I saw a man on a roof I thought was a soldier, and I said, 'Please, sir, help me.'" He wasn't a soldier. But in one of the few acts of kindness that day, the gunman told the pastor, "Escape."
At 1:20, the raid's leader gave a one-word order-"Impiyerno!" (Hell)-and the men started setting fire to Ipil; eventually the entire city center was virtually destroyed. When four fire fighters drove in from the edge of town on a yellow fire truck, the rebels shot the driver in the head. Then they made a leisurely withdrawal. From his house, where he was hiding with his family, Villafuerte watched them depart. "They stopped up the road at a shop to drink Cokes and beer," he said. "They didn't kill anybody. But I don't think they paid for the beers." After 4 p.m., the first military helicopters finally swooped over Ipil. By then the attackers had split into two groups and moved out to the distant hills, picking up a dozen more hostages as they went.