De Lima wants MILF report

MANILA, Philippines - Justice Secretary Leila de Lima is asking the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) for a copy of its report detailing the involvement of its fighters in the bloody clash with the police last Jan. 25.

She said she made the request upon learning that the rebel group was preparing to submit its own report on the incident to the Malaysian government.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) is investigating the criminal aspect of the encounter in Mamasapano, Maguindanao.

MILF vice chairman Ghadzali Jaafar was quoted in reports as saying that a seven-member special investigating team would submit a report of the incident to Malaysia, the third-party facilitator of the peace talks between the MILF and the Philippine government.

Jaafar said the move was in accordance with “protocols in the peace process.”

De Lima said DOJ investigators are counterchecking with the MILF to determine if the names provided by witnesses match with those involved in last month’s bloody firefight.

“We are counterchecking it also from the possible complement of the MILF because in their report we may be able to identify the components of the group that figured in the encounter with the policemen,” she said.

De Lima said prosecutors and investigators obtained the names of the gunmen after interviewing several residents living near the clash site.

So far, witnesses have provided “less than 10” names of those possibly involved in the gun fight with the Special Action Force (SAF) policemen.

The firefight in Mamasapano, Maguindanao claimed 67 lives – 44 SAF policemen, 18 MILF guerrillas and five civilians.

The DOJ team, along with agents from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), was able to gather statements from several witnesses, including residents, barangay officials and members of an armed group.

Some of the witnesses mentioned the names of the people involved in the firefight, some identified the armed groups involved, while some recounted the chronology of events, De Lima said.

“We have to be doubly careful also in taking their word immediately as truth or gospel truth,” she said when asked if she thought the witnesses were credible.

Aside from vetting the information they had received from the witnesses, De Lima said the investigating team wants to talk to the MILF commanders to get their side.

De Lima said the NBI-DOJ team would also look into the deaths of the civilians to verify whether they were killed or were caught in the crossfire.

The local government of Mamasapano called on investigating bodies not to overlook the civilians killed in the clash.

Mamasapano town mayor Benzar Ampatuan said the slain civilians have no agenda in the clashes between the policemen and the Muslim rebels.

Ampatuan added the government should also look into the death of four MILF rebels who were killed by SAF commandos while sleeping inside a mosque.

The SAF, whose mission was to arrest Marwan, was blaming the MILF and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) for the killing of its men.

The MILF, meanwhile, faulted the SAF for lack of coordination, which was required under the mechanisms of the peace process.

De Lima stressed the investigation would not be limited to the deaths of the 44 policemen but would also cover the criminal liability of the gunmen who fought and killed the SAF operatives.

The DOJ and NBI investigators are expected to finish their report on April 2.

PNP officer-in charge Deputy Director General Leonardo Espina said the Board of Inquiry (BOI) is requesting that it be given one more week or until March 6 to wrap up its investigation before submitting a final report. The BOI is the main body investigating the incident.

Espina said the BOI findings would be “very factual and truthful” and bereft of undue influence from the PNP.

BOI chairman Director Benjamin Magalong said they are updating the results of the investigation by establishing direct contacts through letters and phone calls with the families of the fallen police commandos.

“Our ultimate objective is not just the truth, but to bring the answers to the families of SAF 44. They are entitled to and to receive timely and appropriate investigative assistance,” he said.

The BOI has gathered about 400 statements of people involved in the operation, including those from resigned PNP chief Director General Alan Purisima, who was reportedly in full command despite being under suspension over graft charges.

Parallel investigations

Malacañang said there is no need for a consolidated report on the incident as the findings of the parallel investigations will be the most important consideration.

Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said all these reports would be made available to President Aquino.

“I don’t think the President has expressed any preference, but he is expecting first and foremost the report of the BOI,” she added.

Valte noted said the DOJ is conducting a separate investigation on the incident with teh help from the NBI.

Valte maintained there was nothing to worry about separate reports causing confusion.

“In our experience, that has not been the case. We have seen always a parallel investigation by separate government agencies and ... that has never happened based on what we’ve seen,” Valte said.

She added the results of the investigations would be made available to all agencies conducting the probe.

The Senate and the House of Representatives are also investigating the incident.

Apart from the DOJ and the BOI, the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP), the Board Commission on Human Rights (CHR) and the PNP Scene of the Crime Operatives are also looking into theincident.

Sen. Teofisto Guingona III and some academicians are proposing to “reconcile” the reports of the probe bodies..

Tactical errors

Lawmakers said Purisima was in control of the Jan. 25 operation with then SAF commander Director Getulio Napeñas in tactical command.

President Aquino had admitted before lawmakers during a meeting in Malacañang that he had a standing order for the PNP to arrest Zulkifli bir Hir, alias Marwan, and other suspected terrorists.

“SAF committed tactical lapses in carrying out that order, and the President cannot be held responsible for those lapses,” Antipolo Rep. Romero Acop said.

“It is they, not the President, who should be held accountable,” Acop stressed in referring to Purisima and Napeñas.

Acop was among the 30 leaders and members of the House of Representatives who met with Aquino at Malacañang on Monday to discuss the Mamasapano bloodbath and the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law that is in limbo in the House and the Senate.

On the eve of the meeting, Acop said he and four other former police and military officers-turned congressmen met to agree on what questions they would ask Aquino about the botched SAF operation.

The four others were Pangasinan Rep. Leopoldo Bataoil, ACT-CIS party list Rep. Samuel Pagdilao; Ashley Acedillo and Gary Alejano of Magdalo party list group.

Like Acop, Bataoil and Pagdilao are former police officers, while Acedillo and Alejano are former military officers. The five call themselves the “Saturday Group.”

Acop said they collectively agreed on two questions, which they asked Aquino.

He said the first was why the President allowed the participation of Purisima in the SAF operation and the second was what Aquino did to help the embattled SAF troopers.

“He did not answer our first question. On our second concern, he showed the exchange of text messages between him and Purisima,” Acop said.

He pointed out that Aquino could not have acted in a timely manner to order military reinforcement for the beleaguered SAF teams “because at 8:17 a.m. on the Jan. 25, the day of the operation, Purisima informed him through a text message that the SAF commandos were already supported by mechanized vehicles and artillery fire provided by the military.”

“But it turned out that was not true, because there was neither mechanized nor artillery support for the besieged SAF teams at that time,” he stressed.

Acop said Purisima erred in interpreting a text message he received from Lt. Gen. Rustico Guerrero, commander of the military’s Western Mindanao Command based in Zamboanga City.

In his Senate testimony, Guerrero said he informed Purisima that mechanized, tank and artillery support “was available” in Maguindanao for the SAF troopers who were battling the MILF guerillas and its breakaway faction, Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF).

But that was different from saying that such assets were already being deployed, he said.

Acop said the task to deploy those assets was the job of his “commander on the ground” in Maguindanao, Maj. Gen. Edmundo Pangilinan of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division.

Mechanized support was mobilized at around 8 a.m. According to Napeñas and his deputy, Chief Supt. Noli Taliño, Pangilinan disallowed the critical artillery support in the morning “because of the peace process (with the MILF) and the presence of civilians in Mamasapano.

Pangilinan allowed the firing of three blank artillery rounds at around 6 p.m. in the area where the SAF assault team that killed Marwan was still engaged in a firefight with BIFF guerillas.

According to survivors, the probing artillery fire scared away the guerillas, since they assumed that what would follow were deadly rounds. The artillery support allowed soldiers and policemen to rescue 29 members of the assault team, which lost nine men.

At 6 p.m., the 36-member blocking force had been nearly wiped out in furious gun battles with MILF fighters between 6 a.m. and 2 p.m. Only one had survived. –Jess Diaz, Jaime Laude, Aurea Calica