The Camp Cawa-Cawa siege was a siege of a Philippine Constabulary-Integrated National Police camp by security forces of the Philippines on January 3–5, 1989, after a rogue policeman took the camp's ranking officer hostage. Rizal Alih, a patrolman, and several other men had been detained pending an investigation into their alleged involvement in the murder of Zamboanga City MayorCesar Climaco on 14 November 1984. Gen. Eduardo Batalla, the regional commander of the PC-INP who had his office at the camp, had made a decision to have the detained men transferred to Manila, however Alih refused to cooperate. Batalla had summoned the men to his office for a conference, but the talks degenerated into a heated exchange with both parties shouting at each other. Alih and his companions were able to over-power their guards and took Batalla, his aide Col. Romeo Abendan and several others hostage. After a 3-day siege, Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the PhilippinesRenato de Villa ordered that the camp be assaulted. Philippine security forces decided to attack the camp using helicopters. Rockets deployed from the aircraft set fire to the building where Gen. Batalla was being held and it burned to the ground. Batalla, Abendan and 18 other PC/INP personnel were later found burned to death. Alih managed to escape the ruined camp, making his way to Basilan and eventually Sabah, Malaysia. Alih was arrested by Malaysian authorities on August 18, 1994 and charged with illegal possession of firearms. He was extradited back to the Philippines in 2006. He was detained in Camp Crame and died in the camp's hospital on 14 August 2015 after complaining of chest pains. He was buried the next day in Zamboanga City.
Commemoration
The Philippine National Police commemorates the deaths of Gen. Batalla and Col. Abendan every year. Camp Cawa-Cawa itself was renamed Camp Brigadier General Eduardo B Batalla, and another Philippine National Police camp in Mercedes, Zamboanga City was named Camp Colonel Romeo A. Abendan in honor of the slain police officers.
A film depicting the siege, , was released on March 8, 1989. Directed by Carlo J. Caparas, it stars Ramon Revilla as Rizal Alih and Eddie Garcia as Brig. Gen. Eduardo Batalla.
