No whitewash in Mamasapano clash probe, Palace assures public

Malacañang on Monday assured the public that the truth will not be concealed in the government’s probe on the deadly clash involving members of the PNP-Special Action Force (SAF) and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) last week.

 

At a press briefing, presidential spokesman Secretary Edwin Lacierda said the government will “do injustice” to the 44 SAF members killed in the incident if the probe will be whitewashed.

 

“If you want to give justice to the fallen 44, any investigative body whether it’s a Board of Inquiry, the Senate and the House, should really seek the truth. That’s the minimum requirement,” Lacierda told reporters.

 

He also gave assurance that the government “will go to the bottom of the truth in this case.”

 

On January 25, 44 PNP-SAF members were killed and 12 were wounded during a firefight with the MILF and its breakaway group, the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) in Mamasapano, Maguindanao. The MILF had announced that a total of 17 of their fighters died in the clash. 

 

The SAF members supposedly entered an MILF-controlled area in Mamasapano to arrest Filipino bomb maker Abdulbasit Usman and Jemaah Islamiyah leader Zulkifli bin Hir—also known as “Commander Marwan.” 

 

Government and security officials earlier said Marwan was most likely killed in the Mamasapano operation, although this information still needs to be confirmed.

 

‘Unfair’ to imply whitewash

 

The Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) earlier formed a Board of Inquiry to look into the Mamasapano clash. The board is headed by Deputy Director General Marcelo Garbo and Director Benjamin Magalong, chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group.

 

On Sunday, Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares claimed the Board of Inquiry “is not expected to objectively investigate the killing of the 44 SAF personnel,” since members of the panel still answer to some “superiors” who may be liable for the incident.

 

Lacierda, for his part, said making such conclusions is “unfair.”

 

“I think that it is sad that people would say that considering that it’s the police force that lost lives. It’s the institution that has lost precious people,” the Palace official said.

 

“More than these speculations, I think, the truth for them is much, much more important and trumps all speculations that people have been saying,” he added.

 

Some lawmakers are also planning to file a bill later in the day seeking the creation of an independent Truth Commission to probe the Mamasapano clash.

 

Lacierda deferred comment on the creation of the Truth Commission, pointing out that the Senate and the House of Representatives are “independent bodies.”

 

The MILF, which signed a peace agreement with the Philippine government last year, has also created its own investigating body to probe the deadly incident. — RSJ, GMA News