North Cotabato gov't gives P10,000 to each fallen cop's family

NORTH COTABATO, Philippines - North Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Taliño Mendoza is extending a P10,000 endowment package to each of the families of the 44 policemen killed on January 25 by Moro rebels while engaged in a counter-terrorism operation in Mamasapano, Maguindanao.

Mendoza said she has tasked her subordinates at the provincial capitol in Amas District in Kidapawan City to immediately establish contact with the families of the slain members of the police’s Special Action Force to hasten the release of the individual cash grants.

“This is just a little help from the people of the province. The amount is nothing if compared to the 'supreme sacrifice’ of these SAF commandos, so committed to address terrorism, whose ugly image we have also been seeing in our province,” said Mendoza.

Residents of North Cotabato, which covers 17 towns and 40 barangays in its capital, Kidapawan City, have witnessed deadly bombings in the province in recent months, blamed on groups identified with Malaysian bomb maker Zulkifli Abd Hir, also known as "Marwan," and his ethnic Maguindanaon cohort, Abdulbasit Usman.

Marwan and Usman were the targets of the January 25 government counter-terrorism operation in Mamasapano that turned disastrous when members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front attacked the SAF teams that raided the hideouts of the two notorious bombers.

The MILF and the government are supposed to mutually cooperate in the interdiction of criminals and terrorists in potential flashpoint areas based on the July 1997 Agreement on General Cessation of Hostilities, which both sides crafted in Cagayan de Oro City 18 years ago.

Several North Cotabato residents were killed while about 70 others were injured in bombings in Mlang, Kabacan, and Pikit towns from November to December 2014, perpetrated by bombers reportedly holding out in areas covered by the GPH-MILF ceasefire pact.

North Cotabato folks have also witnessed two deadly attacks by guerillas on the provincial jail in Kidapawan City, from where they rescued detained bomb experts implicated in bombings in the province in years past.