From MindaNews (Feb 26):
MILF commander who stopped Mamasapano clash shuns interview with BOI
A commander of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front who was
instrumental in stopping the clash in Mamasapano, Maguindanao on Jan. 25 has
refused to be interviewed by the board of inquiry formed by the Philippine
National Police to look into the circumstances behind the incident.
Wahid Tundok, commander of the 118th Base
Command, met with the BOI in the MILF’s Camp Darapanan
here on Wednesday, but for unknown reasons declined an interview with the probe
body despite assurances by MILF vice chair for political affairs Ghadzali
Jaafar of full cooperation by the rebel group.
Tundok was supposed to be a key witness to what really
happened on Jan. 25, when members of the PNP Special Action Force engaged Moro
rebels in a clash that has imperiled the peace process between government and
the MILF.
The encounter left 44 SAF commandos, 18 MILF fighters and at
least five civilians dead.
The area of operations of the 118th Base Command
lies adjacent to the 105th Base Command, the MILF unit that fought
the SAF commandos in Barangay Tunakalipao, Mamasapano last Jan. 25.
“We wanted to ask him (Tundok) about the Mamasapano
incident. I wanted to make a sense of what happened,” BOI chair Police Director
Benjamin Magalong said.
Magalong and the entire BOI suspended their investigation of
the SAF survivors when they received word that the MILF had granted their
request to interview Tundok.
Brig. Gen. Carlito Galvez Jr., chief of the government
Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities, and his counterpart in
the MILF Rashid Lidasan said it was Tundok who called the MILF field commanders
and told them to disengage because they were fighting government troops.
The government and the MILF have a ceasefire agreement, one
of many agreements signed in the course of on-and-off talks since 1997.
Magalong said Tundok could have clarified his role in
helping the truce committees put a stop to the fighting in Mamasapano last Jan.
25.
“We cannot force him if he does not want to be interviewed.
That is his right. Our investigation has no force of law to compel anyone to
testify,” the police official told reporters after Tundok told him of his
decision.
Magalong had to be contented in talking with Jaafar in a
closed-door meeting that lasted for an hour.
Jaafar said the MILF was cooperating “fully” with the BOI
and has allowed them to interview their field commanders.
He said the BOI’s only request was to interview Tundok,
which the MILF Central Committee approved.
“The MILF is complying with everything that has to do to
forward the peace process,” Jaafar said.
Jaafar himself led the convoy of the BOI to the MILF
main office in Camp
Darapanan in Simuay
Wednesday.
The MILF official told reporters that the seven-man MILF
special investigation body headed by a member of its central committee has
nearly completed its investigation of the Mamasapano incident.
He said the MILF will submit its report to the Malaysian
facilitator in the peace talks once their investigation is concluded.
“It is standard procedure in our negotiations to submit any
documents to the Malaysian facilitator who is the neutral party,” he explained.
Magalong said they would like to get hold of a copy of the
MILF investigation report before concluding their own investigation.
The BOI arrived in Cotabato City
last Tuesday and interviewed SAF survivors. They also visited the bloody battlefield
in Mamasapano on the same day.
A BOI member said they were particularly interested on why
the 55th SAF Company did not go to the line of coconut trees and
bananas just 500 meters from the battlefield where they were annihilated by the
MILF fighters who had surrounded them.
“Cover and concealment is always a requisite in military
maneuvers. We studied them in military and police schools,” the official who
asked not to be identified said.
“We think the SAF commandos did not know the terrain when
they arrived at the site Sunday dawn. It would have been a different story if
they have reached the coconut trees,” he said.
The official said the MILF fighters knew the terrain and
made use of the advantage of cover and concealment behind the coconut trees.
Aside from Tundok, former PNP chief Director General Allan
Purisima also declined to be interviewed by the BOI.
Purisima, however, has testified before the Senate committee
on public order and safety, where he divulged, among others, the exchange of
text messages between him and President Aquino while the Mamasapano operation
was going on.
Magalong said he is confident that their investigation will
be substantial and done without “sacrificing its quality.”
http://www.mindanews.com/top-stories/2015/02/26/milf-commander-who-stopped-mamasapano-clash-shuns-interview-with-boi-on-mamasapano/
