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In other words, the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) thinks the Senate’s report on the Mamasapano incident is not good enough.
“The CHR slammed the draft Senate report on the Mamasapano incident, saying emotions prevailed over objectivity in the presentation of the findings,” reports ABS-CBNnews.com.
In fact, as the report indicated, “CHR chairperson Loreta Ann ‘Etta’ Rosales said the findings, disclosed by the office of Senator Grace Poe last week, easily jumped to conclusions in saying that the incident was a ‘massacre’ and not a mere ‘misencounter.'”
In a statement released by the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP), Rosales said, “While the Commission commiserates with the families of the victims and acknowledges that the killing of the Fallen 44 was unjustified, categorizing the incident as a ‘massacre’ is excessive.”
Rosales added, “Worse, the Senate Report describes the situation as akin to walking into a trap. This equates the incident to an ambush, which is not borne out by the records because the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) itself, much less the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), was unaware of the arrival of the Special Action Force (SAF).”
The report noted: “Rosales also expressed dismay over the draft report’s accusation that the OPAPP failed to negotiate a fair agreement for the government because it ‘suffered an excess optimism’ in the peace process.”
The encounter in Mamasapano, Maguindanao on Jan 25 left 44 members of the elite Philippine National Police (PNP) Special Action Force (SAF) dead. The PNP-SAF troopers had been out to capture Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir alias “Marwan” and Filipino bomb maker Abdul Basit Usman. Both men had bounties on their heads placed by the U.S. government: US$5 million for Marwan and US$1 million for Usman.
The operation turned bloody when members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) said they had to fight back because the PNP-SAF had breached their territory. They alleged that they had not been informed about the operation to get Marwan and Usman. The hostile encounter lasted 11 hours. The MILF lost 18 of their fighters.
Both the government and the MILF have done probes on the Mamasapano encounter to determine what went wrong, as the incident threatens the Bangsamoro peace deal. It has since been revealed that the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) and even some armed civilians were also involved in the clash.
