On the morning of January 25, while Philippine National Police-Special Action Force troopers from the 55th Special Action Company and the 84th Seaborne were fighting tooth and nail with Moro rebels in Maguindanao and badly needed help, their comrades from other SAF units, who were also part of Oplan Exodus, did not go to the combat site and stayed along the highway in Mamasapano.
A video obtained by News5 shows that past 8 a.m. of January 25, members of the Philippine Army, while on board an armored vehicle on their way to Mamasapano town, saw some SAF members from the First and Fourth Battalions of the 44th Special Action Company staying on the roadside with their parked vehicles.
Among the SAF members in the video was Supt. Michael John Mangahis, operations officer of Oplan Exodus.
Mangahis was with other elite policemen, some seen in the footage sitting under the trees while their comrades are in Brgy. Tukanalipao, engaging in a bloody encounter with members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which later resulted in the death of 44 SAF members.
Mangahis admitted that it was him and his troops that the Army saw on the morning of January 25. He, however, declined to give a statement about the video.
Meanwhile, PNP Board of Inquiry head Benjamin Magalong defended Mangahis' troops, saying there was nothing questionable about what they were doing during the height of the Mamasapano encounter. They were given a different task in that mission.
According to Magalong, Mangahis' unit, which was part of the group assigned to secure the motion supply route during the mission, was also being harrassed by the enemy during the clash in Tukanalipao.
"Naka-prone position sila kasi ini-snipe sila d'yan eh...Akala mo lang nakahiga at nagre-relax sila pero hindi [They were in a prone position because they were being sniped at. You just thought that they were lying down and relaxing but they were not]," said Magalong.
WATCH THE FULL VIDEO REPORT BY NEWS5’s KAYE IMSON.
[Video report]
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