PRESIDENT Duterte has posthumously awarded the Medal of Valor to a Marine who rescued four wounded comrades and recovered the body of junior officer despite the intense firefight during the Marawi siege in 2017.
The Philippine Marine Corps announced on Saturday the President’s order to award the MOV, the highest military decoration in combat, to Private First Class Gener Tinangag.
Tinangag was cited for “acts conspicuous courage, gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty.”
He was a newly-assigned assistant automatic rifleman of the Marine Battalion Landing Team (MBLT) 5 at the time of the siege perpetrated by the ISIS-inspired Maute Group.
The five-month siege, which broke out on May 23, led to the death of about a thousand terrorists, including ISIS Southeast Asia emir Isnilon Hapilon. Also killed were 168 soldiers and policemen and 47 civilians.
Tinangag was among MBLT-5 troops deployed to reinforce personnel of the MBLT 7 and Marine Special Operation Group (MARSOG) which figured in a fierce firefight with Maute Group members at the vicinity of Mapandi Bridge in Barangay Lilod Madaya in Marawi City on June 9.
“With casualties mounting due to the attacks of the numerically superior ISIS-inspired local terrorist group (Maute), MBLT-7 and MARSOG needed to immediately execute retrograde operation to avoid being trapped and pinned down with their back against the Agus River,” Tinangag’s citation read.
Tinangag and three other Marines volunteered to evacuate the wounded and killed troops to a casualty collection point (CCP).
After numerous trips of evacuating wounded and killed personnel, the team sought cover and rested due to exhaustion, except for Tinangag.
“Disregarding his own safety and acting without orders, PFC Tinangag stealthy maneuvered and crawled through the rubble to get close to other casualties while fearlessly and repeatedly exposing himself from (to) the enemies’ line of fire,” the citation read.
While being targeted by grenades and machine gun fires, Tinangag rescued four wounded Marines (Corporals Rolan Sumagpang, Michael Santos and Franclin Sumalde and PFC Pfizer Paglinawan) who were holed up in a mosque adjacent to a cluster of buildings being attacked by the terrorists.
Tinangag’s movement drew attention of enemy sniper fires from nearby buildings.
After rescuing four wounded Marines, Tinangag returned to the “kill zone” to recover the body of 1Lt. John Frederick Savellano, who was killed in the encounter.
“PFC Tinangag took an enemy sniper shot to his stomach and was peppered with shrapnel from an enemy grenade. Despite his wounds, he mustered all his remaining strength and carried his comrade Marine under the rubble of buildings to the CCP located 200 meters away while avoiding the relentless enemy fires,” the citation added.
Tinangag succeeded in bringing the body of Savellano to the CPP, after which he collapsed. Tinangag died at a medical station hours later.
Maj. Gen. Ariel Caculitan, commandant of the Philippine Marine Corps, said the medal has yet to be formally awarded to the family of Tinangag.
“Our intention is to award it during the Marine Day in November. It’s a special occasion, my plan is to award it on November 7, unless higher headquarters has another plan,” said Caculitan.
