More than a hundred face raps over SAF 44

From The Standard (Sep 9): More than a hundred face raps over SAF 44

More than a hundred persons will be criminally charged for the Mamasapano incident where 44 Special Action Force commandos of the Philippine National Police were killed during an encounter with Muslim rebels  on Jan. 25, 2015.

“There is over a hundred, I think, that will be indicted over this [incident]. We are meeting probably by next week to get all of the specifics,” President Benigno S. Aquino III  said  during an interview aired over state-run television station PTV-4.

Aquino expressed the need for a  closure on the issue. 

“Do I have closure? I still have quite a number of questions, and there are various agencies of government tasked to ferret out the truth of exactly what happened in its entirety,” said Aquino.
 
After being criticized for not mentioning the Mamasapano incident in his final State of the Nation Address, Aquino admitted that many questions surrounding that fateful day remain unanswered.

Aquino said the government is reviewing several  accounts that led to the deaths of 44 elite commandos at the hands of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters. “However, there is difficulty in getting the witnesses,” said Aquino. 

Aquino declined to state any specifics of the investigation saying it might hamper efforts to get to the truth of the matter.

The Department of Justice earlier recommended  the filing of criminal charges against 90 individuals over the bloody  Jan. 25  clash.

In July, a supposed transmittal letter to the DoJ approving the preliminary investigation for the complex crime of direct assault with murder against 102 individuals, including three Moro Islamic Liberation Front and two Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters commanders, was leaked.

The number of respondents in the case was raised from 90 to 102, sources said.

Public and legislative support for the Malacañang and MILF proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law suffered following the Jan. 25 clash, even as the elite cops managed to kill their target, Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir alias Marwan.

Lawmakers have questioned the sincerity of the MILF in the peace process, vowing to make the proposed law free of provisions that they believe could be exploited by the MILF.

Because of the Mamasapano incident, some lawmakers and critics of the BBL feared that the proposed law will be used by the MILF as an instrument for secession. 

The role of third-party facilitator Malaysia was also questioned because the latter has a long-standing territorial dispute with the Philippines over Sabah.

Lawmakers also vowed to make the proposed law compliant with the Constitution, citing the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain experience.

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