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[av_heading heading=’Still no justice for the Fallen 44′ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=” av-medium-font-size-title=” av-small-font-size-title=” av-mini-font-size-title=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” admin_preview_bg=”]
BY LUIS BUENAFLOR JR.
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January 31, 2018
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AFTER exactly a week and three years since the Mamasapano Massacre which took the lives of 44 troopers of the Philippine National Police’s (PNP) Special Action Force or SAF, justice still eludes their grieving widows and mothers left behind.
Just to refresh your memory in case Maria Ressa’s whimpering somehow distracted you, according to Wikipedia: “The Mamasapano Massacre was an incident that occurred during a police operation, code named Oplan Exodus, which took place on a Sunday, Jan. 25, 2015, at Tukanalipao, Mamasapano, Maguindanao, by the SAF of the PNP (allegedly joined by United States Army Special Forces) against the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
“The operation was intended to capture or kill wanted Malaysian terrorist and bomb-maker Zulkifli Abdhir and other Malaysian terrorists or high-ranking members of the BIFF.
“Originally a mission to serve arrest warrants for high-ranking terrorists, it led to the deaths of 44 members of SAF and the death of Zulkifli Abdhir confirmed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the PNP at 6:30 p.m. of Feb. 4, 2015, due to a matching DNA result. He was one of FBI’s most wanted terrorists.
“The operation caught the attention of many for the relatively high number of police officers killed. The clash has been dubbed as the biggest loss of government elite force in history.”
As soon as the story hit primetime television and the newspapers, it became clear to the nation that the SAF troopers were not only outnumbered, outgunned and massacred but the atrocities committed on the wounded and the dead by the MILF and BIFF were beyond description. To say that what the MILF and the BIFF did to the wounded and dead SAF troopers is inhuman and cruel is an understatement.
Public outrage was at its highest and the people demanded an explanation and justice. The outrage reached its crescendo when the people learned that then President Noynoy Aquino refused reinforcements and artillery support when the beleaguered SAF troopers radioed for help.
That nincompoop Noynoy Aquino was salivating to win the Nobel Peace Prize and he was terrified that by aiding the beleaguered SAF troopers his ongoing peace talks with the MILF will be jeopardized.
The incident caused Congress to halt the passage of the Bangsamoro Basic Law, effectively endangering the peace process between the government and the MILF. In short, Noynoy Aquino’s planned legacy died in the waters. Indeed, God was looking down at the Philippines, had the Bangsamoro Basic Law passed, Noynoy Aquino would have handed Mindanao to the MILF on a silver platter.
A Senate report read: “The Mamasapano incident was overkill. Labelling the tragedy as a misencounter would do injustice to the fallen 44 PNP-SAF heroes.”
Three years since and justice still evades the Fallen 44. The Commander-in-Chief, then President Noynoy Aquino, blamed everyone except himself and he never took responsibility that he sent these men to their death. If he can only blame Gloria Arroyo as was his practice every time a fiasco happened, he would.
It is not only common sense but a long-honored tradition that the buck stops with the Commander-in-Chief. But of course, not with Noynoy Aquino. He is only the Commander-in-Chief; if there is no problem he automatically stops being one as soon as a problem arises.
In the blame game that soon happened when the smoke of the Senate investigations cleared, these people stand out as the ones responsible for sending these SAF 44 to their deaths: President Noynoy Aquino, Secretary of the Interior Mar Roxas and Philippine National Police Chief (suspended at that time) Alan Purisima.
If you were following the TV coverage of the Senate investigations on the Mamasapano Massacre and you happened to see Mar Roxas crying his heart out, “careless whispers” say it’s not because he felt for the Fallen 44 but he suddenly remembered he is married to Korina Sanchez.
The MILF and BIFF members who were responsible for the carnage were never brought to justice. There was not even a semblance of an effort from the Aquino government to hunt for them and arrest them. Now the widows and the orphans are still crying out for justice for their loved ones.
And true to his promise to the loved ones of the Fallen 44:
President Rodrigo Duterte has declared Jan. 25 every year as the National Day of Remembrance for the 44 elite policemen who were killed in the Mamasapano Massacre.
Duterte in Proclamation No. 164 signed said the slain SA) troopers must be remembered for their heroism.
“I ask all our countrymen to remember the heroism of the SAF 44 and recall the daily sacrifices of our uniformed personnel for the sake of the continued peace and security of our nation,” Duterte said.
Finally, from a Jan. 25 news report from ABS-CBN:
“The government’s top lawyer has asked the Supreme Court to order the indictment of former President Benigno ‘Noynoy’ Aquino III for reckless imprudence resulting in multiple homicide over the deaths of 44 police commandos in a botched anti-terrorism raid in Mamasapano, Maguindanao three years ago.
“In a 40-page manifestation, Solicitor General Jose Calida asked the High Court to order the Office of the Ombudsman to junk the graft and usurpation of authority charges filed against Aquino and nullify the Ombudsman’s dismissal of the homicide raps.”
Is this finally justice for the Fallen 44? (brotherlouie16@gmail.com)/PN
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