Bad weather prevented a military chopper from evacuating a dying Marine from Tipo-Tipo, Basilan to a hospital on Monday, a military official said Wednesday.
"It is not true that there was no Air Force chopper that arrived. The chopper was available but the weather condition did not allow the chopper to evacuate the wounded," Brig. Gen. Jorge Segovia, acting AFP command center chief and military spokesman for the North Cotabato conflict, told reporters at a press conference in Camp Crame.
Segovia made the clarification as he denied that lack of military logistics contributed to the cause of Cpl. Angelo Abeto's death.
The military spokesman also denied reports that Abeto bled to death. He said the Marine was hit by shrapnel from mortar fire in the head and back and his wounds were fatal.
Jiggy Manicad, a reporter of GMA-7, recalled in a Philippine Daily Inquirer news item how he witnessed Abeto's dying hours in Tipo-Tipo.
Manicad was quoted in the report as saying Abeto might have bled to death.
The television reporter also said he saw a Sikorsky helicopter of the US military evacuating Abeto and three other wounded soldiers from the battlefield.
The Marine died on the way to hospital. His body was brought to Camp Navarro Hospital in Zamboanga City.
Segovia clarified that the chopper that fetched Abeto and the other wounded soldiers was a Bell 412 owned by a private contractor called Evergreen.
"It was not a Sikorsky chopper. It [was] a Bell 412... The civilian chopper responded to the situation. It came at a time when the weather allowed it to enter the location," the military official said.
He said Evergreen is a private contractor that helps in the military's Kapit-Bisig operations on counter-terrorism. He said the civilian chopper does not engage in combat operations.
Abeto belonged to the Marine Battalion Landing Team 10 that was attacked by at least 300 members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in Tipo-Tipo on Monday.
The rebels retreated after at least eight hours of fierce firefights. The fighting started 9 a.m. and ended 5 p.m.
The military claimed to have killed at least four MILF rebels and wounded at least a dozen others during the firefight.