Photos by VICTORIA CALAGUIAN
 
(Editor's Note: On the morning of April 4, 1995, more than 200 heavily-armed men wearing fatigue uniforms attacked with military precision the thriving town of Ipil in Zamboanga del Sur in a bloody looting and burning rampage that left 44 people dead, mostly civilians including the town's chief of police. Close to a billion pesos were looted from the town's eight commercial banks. Plaridel Marcelo, an Atenean, was one of those who got shot and killed during the attack.)

   Victoria Calaguian, left, was the first photojournalist to visit Ipil after
the bloody attack that fateful day. She was a staffmember of TODAY, a daily newspaper based in Manila, on assignment in Zamboanga City the day of the attack. Very early the next morning, she talked her way into hitching a ride in a military helicopter carrying ranking military officials on their way
to check the damage in Ipil. She took these pictures below.
     Here's a short note we received from Victoria---at the time of the incident she was a mother to Vicoy, a three-year-old boy---and this was what she had to say about her feelings about her coverage of the killings, burning and looting of Ipil:

  "Here are images of the children I caught with my camera while covering the carnage in Ipil and the military pursuit operations across the Zamboanga Peninsula.
     They [the children's images] haunt me knowing that they are trapped in the midst of a conflict and all I could do was shoot their pictures. But I was hoping that if I can have their innocent faces printed on the newspaper for all to see, we will realize how they suffer and give end to it.
     Now, I'm still waiting for that realization. And until I see them suffering, I'll keep shooting. I wish everyone will know that there is no better teacher [about the horrors of war] than the look in the eyes of these children."

VICTORIA CALAGUIAN
May 5, 1995

To read Victoria's article about the raid click here 

Death & Destruction in Ipil
Photos by VICTORIA CALAGUIAN
COPYRIGHT 2001 | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED







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