Go (coco)nuts! Share this story with your friends.
If only one day is enough to fix all our problems.
“The Senate on Tuesday, March 3, adopted a resolution designating March 6 as National Day of Healing for Unity and Peace to honor those who died in the January 25 encounter in Mamasapano, Maguindanao,” reports Ryan Chua on ABS-CBNnews.com.
The report noted: “Resolution 1204 also honors the memory of the thousands killed in decades of armed conflict in Mindanao.”
Senators TG Guingona, Bam Aquino, and Koko Pimentel authored the resolution.
The resolution states that the Mamasapano incident “caused a national divide threatening to polarize the country and its peace-loving peoples.” It added, “There is an imperative and urgent need to pause and reassess our common aspirations to bring peaceful solutions to our nations problems.”
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. It has since been revealed that the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) and even some armed civilians were also involved in the clash.
Photo: Gov.ph
