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Board of Inquiry on Mamasapano clash takes testimonies of nearly 300 witnesses


The PNP's Board of Inquiry (BOI) investigating the Mamasapano clash has documented nearly 300 eyewitness accounts from government troops and civilians, the panel chairman said in a statement Monday.
 
Director Benjamin Magalong, the chief of the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, said the investigators has taken a total of 286 sworn statements mostly from officers and personnel of the Philippine National Police-Special Action Force (PNP-SAF) who took part in the operation, Armed Forces of the Philippines key officers and personnel in central Mindanao, and some civilian witnesses.

Forty-four police officers from the elite PNP-SAF were killed during the 11-hour firefight with members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) in Mamasapano, Maguindanao on Sunday.

Authorities said 392 PNP-SAF members were involved in the operation to capture suspected terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir alias Marwan, an alleged member of the dreaded Jemaah Islamiya.
 
The BOI expects to get statements from at least 420 individuals to complete its investigation, Magalong said.
 
Members of the panel are police director Catalino Rodriguez and chief superintendent Atty. John Sosito.
 
The Operational Audit team is composed of senior superintendent Cesar Hawthorne Binag, senior superintendent  Benigno Durana Jr., senior superintendent Robert Po, and chief inspector David Duarte.
 
The board has taken the statement of Director Getulio Pascua Napeñas, the head of the PNP-SAF who was relieved following the Mamasapano "misencounter." Napeñas will be out from his post "pending the outcome of the board of inquiry."
 
Interior Secretary Mar Roxas has said the BOI would look into the "tactical level" of the firefight and would determine if there were any operational lapses that led to what authorities called a "misencounter."
 
PNP officer-in-charge Deputy Director General Leonardo Espina, for his part, said the board would determine if the officers who led the SAF operations were administratively or criminally liable for the deaths of the elite police commandos.
 
Members of the PNP-SAF clashed with members of the MILF and the breakaway group BIFF after they went to Mamasapano, Maguindanao to serve arrest warrants on the suspected Malaysian terrorist Marwan and alleged suspected Abu Sayyaf Group member Abdul Bassit Usman.

The government and the MILF has an existing ceasefire agreement. The two sides signed a comprehensive peace deal in March 2013.
 
The operation resulted in the death of 44 elite police commandos, 18 MILF fighters and two civilians. —NB, GMA News

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