The recent bloody firefight involving members the Philippine National Police (PNP) Special Action Force (SAF) and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) guerillas joined in by elements of Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) who also have a camp in the locality early morning on Sunday shaken not only Maguindanao but the whole country as well.
About
400 members of the elite SAF-PNP were on a clandestine operation to serve
warrant of arrest on Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli Bin Hir also known as
“Marwan” and Abdulbasit Usman who are linked to Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) but did
not coordinate with the GPH-MILF ceasefire committees, the ADJAG as a protocol
provided for in the ceasefire agreement signed by the GPH and MILF.
The
encounter resulted to the death of 44 members of the elite force, five (5) from
the MILF side. Twelve more were also wounded on the SAF-PNP side and two
civilians wounded in a crossfire. The MILF 105th Base Command headed by Ustadz
Zacaria Goma is located in the area and is recognized by government.
Mr.
Abdulbasit “Bobby” Benito, Secretary General of the Mindanao Peoples Caucus
(MPC) expressed his sympathy to the bereaved families of the slain PNP member.
“We
are calling the International Monitoring Team (IMT), the ceasefire committees
of GPH-MILF to investigate the clash immediately and find out who ordered the
conduct of the operation.” Benito said.
In
yesterday’s press conference at the Senate, Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos
Jr., said that he suspended the hearings scheduled in the south (Zamboanga and
Sulu) for security reasons due to the Mamasapano incident.
“We
must ask first what is the government’s response to this incident in
Mamasapano? And also ask the PNP as to what happened? What were the
circumstances behind their death? We are in the middle of discussing the
upcoming Bangsamoro and deliberating the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL)
and these are what we are working on.” Marcos said.
Mr.
Benito called on congress not to sacrifice the proposed law because of what
happened.
“We
appeal to congress to continue their task. They should not stop their work on
BBL. We humbly request Senator Alan Peter Cayetano and JV Ejercito Estrada to
demonstrate statesmanship, not too emotional and compulsive.” Benito said.
He
called for sobriety and calmness and for the senators to be objective.
“Let
us not sacrifice the BBL amidst the heartbreaking incident. Fast-tracking the
deliberation on BBL is the best way to move forward at attaining peace in Mindanao .” Benito stressed.
http://www.luwaran.com/index.php/welcome/item/1476-peace-advocates-organizations’-call-for-immediate-impartial-investigation-on-maguindanao-encounter
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