July 12, 2007, Inquirer, TV reporter sees empty houses before all hell breaks loose, by Christine Avendaño Julie Alipala,

July 12, 2007, Inquirer, TV reporter sees empty houses before all hell breaks loose, by Christine Avendaño Julie Alipala, 

MANILA, Philippines -- GMA 7 reporter Jun Veneracion had an eerie feeling when the convoy of seven military vehicles, one of which was carrying him and his two television crewmembers, rolled on Tuesday through an area where the houses were empty.

The 36-year-old broadcaster, who had been in the media for 12 years, recalled past conversations with soldiers who had told him that empty houses in a village in volatile places, such as Basilan province, signaled "trouble" was just around the corner.

His fears came true.

Soon, he and his crew were in the middle of mayhem, a deadly ambush in which at least 14 Marines were killed by combined forces of the Abu Sayyaf and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). 

“I got a first-hand experience of hell,” Veneracion said in a phone interview. “It was like hell.”

Veneracion said heavy firing “from all directions” erupted minutes after the convoy had turned back to assist a dump truck, the last vehicle in the convoy, which had gotten stuck in mud.

By that time, he and cameraman Julius Catibog and assistant cameraman Donny Roxas, had already gone down from the 6-wheeler truck carrying them and 20 other Marines.

Time for prayers

He said the first salvo -- which lasted about five minutes and included rounds of mortar --was very scary.

“I prayed and prayed for the firing to stop,” said Veneracion.

But his prayers were not answered.

Soon, the heavy firing resumed and all they could do was take cover, drop down on their knees and run, and then run again in order to escape the flurry of bullets.

“It went on and on so what we did was dumapa, gumapang, dumapa (hit the ground, crawl, hit the ground).”

“Actually, hinihintay na lang namin na tamaan kami (we were just waiting to get hit),” Veneracion said.

He added that the attackers were so near he could hear their voices.

"We heard them shouting, Allahu Akbar (God is great), many times while they kept on shooting and we thought that it was our last," he added.

"Lahat ng klaseng dasal ginawa na namin (All kinds of prayers, we said them all)."

In between the firing that began at 10 a.m. were frightening periods of waiting for the next volley of shots to erupt.

He said that whenever they were down on the ground taking cover, he and his teammates would look at each other.

"We were ready to surrender to our fate," he said.

There was a point Veneracion said when he felt tears in his eyes. A Marine became teary-eyed himself in the face of the heavy assault.

"The firepower of the other side was far greater than that of the military," he said.

Marines held on

By his own count, Veneracion said the Marines were “vastly outnumbered.” They were about 100 compared to the “500” very determined attackers, he said.

“But even if they were outnumbered, the Marines stood their ground,” he said.

Despite the shooting around them, the television crew was able to videotape the firefight, he said.

But when they had to rush to another location, the crew had to abandon its camera equipment. It was later retrieved by military reinforcement teams.

Veneracion said it was around sundown that he and his crew, with other Marines guiding them, were able to run to a location held by military reinforcement teams.

It was 30 minutes of walking and running, and finally relief that their ordeal had ended.

Never again

It was a “miracle, to say the least,” he said.

One of his cameraman, Roxas, sustained a slight wound in the left ear after being hit by shrapnel.

“We were lucky enough to survive,” Veneracion said. “It’s hard to go back to this kind of situation again.”

Veneracion said he and his crew joined the Marines hoping to get a good story -- until one of the trucks found the mud.

Veneracion said that Roxas told him: "I only see this in movies."

“For me, this is my last (coverage) of this kind,” Veneracion said.