Alternative version of Marwan’s death baseless – Palace exec

MANILA, Philippines - The alternative version that it was the aide of Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan, who killed him during the police raid in Mamasapano, Maguindanao last year was proven to be baseless.

Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office Undersecretary Manuel Quezon III said the alternative version “could be a conspiracy theory that is not borne out (of) facts” and had been dismissed by authorities.

Jesus Agdumag of the Anti-War Anti-Terror (AWAT) Mindanao party-list said Datukan Singgagao was Marwan’s aide who was supposedly recruited as a police asset and assured of reward money.

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front also made the same claim in its report on the Jan. 25 Mamasapano incident but evidence and testimonies presented by the police Special Action Force (SAF) showed this could not be true, President Aquino had ruled in September last year.

Based on a series of photographs, SAF operatives were seen entering Marwan’s hut and cutting off his finger for DNA sampling.

This was contrary to the alternative story that it was the aide who handed the finger out to the raiding SAF police commandos.

Quezon stressed Aquino never talked about the alternative version of the story last year like he had believed it.

“If we recall, what the President said was the need for time to really study all angles or all possibilities as to really what happened,” he said.

“We saw…the President was very forthright about it…the President is always very transparent about these things. He said there was this news that we could not set aside and disregard just like that. We need to study, evaluate and look at the evidence. But the President also said that after looking at and studying the evidence, including the independent study of the Senate, it appeared the alternative theory did not have basis,” Quezon pointed out.