Thursday, March 26, 2015

MILF members who have active participation in Mamasapano incident must be held liable --DND chief

From the Philippine News Agency (Mar 26): MILF members who have active participation in Mamasapano incident must be held liable --DND chief

Department of National Defense (DND) Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said on Thursday all Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) members who had an active participation in the bloody clash on Jan. 25 in Mamasapano, Maguindanao must be held liable.

"Even if they are a revolutionary group, they are living in our country, they are staying in Philippine soil, so they are considered citizens of the Republic," he added.

"The law must be implemented at all costs," he stressed.

The DND chief made the statement on the heels of a 35-page MILF report which puts squarely the blame on the Philippine National Police-Special Action Force (PNP-SAF) for the incident.

The group earlier said they will not surrender their members involved in the encounter and instead will mete out their own punishment to those found liable.

Forty-four SAF members were killed in the Jan. 25 incident which also resulted in the neutralization of Malaysian terrorist Zulkipli bin Hir, alias "Marwan."

Gazmin said it is hard to believe that the MILF had no information regarding Marwan's location in areas they are known to control.

Earlier, the MILF recommended an investigation to determine the liability of SAF trooper PO2 Christopher Lalan, the lone survivor of the 55th Special Action Company, who allegedly killed four MILF combatants while they were sleeping inside a makeshift mosque in Barangay Tukanalipao, Mamasapano town.

”The PNP-SAF committed Human Rights violations,” the MILF report said.

The report added that the MILF forces were fired upon by the SAF troopers belonging to the 55th SAC, killing two Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (BIAF) members Omar Dagadas and Ali Esmael.

The incident triggered a firefight between the BIAF’s 105th Base Command forces and 55th SAC troopers, who were in the area as blocking forces for the assault team of the 84th SAC.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=1&sid=&nid=1&rid=748070

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