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“In his second meeting with the families of the police commandos slain in the secret Mamasapano operation on Jan. 25, President Benigno ‘Noynoy’ Aquino III scolded them for needling him about justice for their slain loved ones,” report Francisco Tuyay and Joyce Pangco Pañares in Manila Standard Today.
Apparently, Aquino made an unscheduled visit to the headquarters of the Philippine National Police (PNP) on Wed night, Feb 18, “to check on the government assistance given to the families of the 44 slain police commandos.” The report indicated that “not all of the families of the 44 slain police commandos were present during the meeting, but Aquino, who arrived a little before 6 p.m., talked to each of the families gathered at the PNP Multipurpose Center, and left at midnight.”
However, a representative of one of the families present at the meeting told broadcaster Anthony Taberna in his dzMM show that “the one-on-one talks turned into an open forum where the families repeatedly asked pointed questions about how the government will deliver justice for their slain loved ones.”
According to the representative, Aquino seemed irked by the repeated questions and blurted out in Filipino: “What do you want us to do, get the fingerprints of all members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front?”
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: Malacañang Photo Bureau
