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“The National Bureau of Investigation in Iligan City on Friday, February 13, seized DVDs of raw videos of the gruesome killings of Special Action Force (SAF) troopers in Mamasapano, Maguindanao last January 25,” reports Roxanne Arevalo on ABS-CBNnews.com.
The report noted: “NBI-Iligan chief Atty. Alex Cabornay led a team that inspected DVD stalls in Barangay Poblacion and confiscated raw video compilations of the Mamasapano incident.”
The report said that vendors claimed they had downloaded the videos from YouTube before they were taken down. The DVDs were being sold for PHP30 to PHP50 each. The video clips had shown SAF troopers being shot in the head.
The report indicated that “the NBI gave a stern warning to the vendors not to sell videos of the clash.”
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 are currently doing probes on the Mamsapano encounter to determine what went wrong, as the incident threatens the Bangsamoro peace deal.
Photo: ABS-CBNnews.com
