The Mamasapano massacre: A year hence!

There was a photo that was uploaded by my friends in Facebook…a photo of the honor guard at the Arlington Cemetery guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier totally covered in snow at the height of the historic blizzard in the East Coast that affected the lives of 85 million Americans. Yes even if there is a snowstorm, the honor guard never leaves his post. This is how important the US Military treats its fallen military… including the Unknown Soldier. Here at home… soldiers are just expendable!

Yesterday was the first anniversary of the untimely deaths of 44 Special Action Force (SAF) Troopers of the Philippine National Police (PNP) who were sent on a top secret mission purportedly serve a warrant of arrest to Zulkifi “Marwan” Abdir with his Malaysian terror partner Basit Usman who had a high price of $5 million dollars on their heads.

While the SAF were able to kill Marwan, their escape plan was stopped by elements of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), which resulted in the death of 44 SAF troopers, 18 MILF rebels and 6 BIFF terrorists. What was not officially told was that, at least two Americans were also killed in that debacle. Until now… this is a still a state secret! So was it a CIA operation?

Perhaps the most painful part of this massacre was what the MILF rebels uploaded on their Facebook page, showing to the horrified Filipino nation and the world that the 44 SAF troopers were not killed altogether. Many of them were still alive, lying on the ground gravely wounded. But the bloodthirsty MILF/BIFF terrorists went on a wild killing spree… showing no mercy to soldiers who were hacked to death or shot at point blank range. Exactly a year and a day later… Justice is still denied to the fallen 44 SAF.

What is deeply disturbing here is that Pres. Benigno “PNoy” Aquino III calls the MILF his “friends” and worse he is hell bent on giving them the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) thru Congress! When the news of the Mamasapano Massacre hit the media… President Aquino disappeared and was unseen for three days. He only surfaced when the bodies of the 44 fallen SAF Troopers arrived in Villamor Air Base…where he was still a no-show… opting to attend the blessing of a Mitsubishi assembly plant. He could not even give honor to the soldiers whom he sent to their untimely deaths!

It’s been a year since the Filipino nation mourned the loss of 44 SAF Troopers… and what is the most frustrating of all… is the cover up that ensued to insulate PNoy from this disaster. There was a Senate Investigation… but it ended abruptly.

Then last July 2015, out of the blue; the Office of the Ombudsman cleared President Aquino of any liability in the Mamasapano massacre, saying that the President did not commit any criminal or administrative act.  In my book, the Office of the Ombudsman Ms. Conchita Carpio Morales is now a co-conspirator in what we call a serious case of Obstruction to Justice. This is why one year later; there is still no justice for the fallen 44.

Yesterday I was tuned to Fox News and its main story was about the new movie “13-Hours: The Secret Soldiers” by famous Film Director Michael Bay who did Pearl Harbor and Transformers, which was released only last Jan. 15 in the US. The Fox discussion focused on this movie which is about the Benghazi incident (that happened exactly 11 years to the day of 9/11 on Sept. 11, 2012) where the US lost its Ambassador Chris Stevens and four American soldiers and how the US State Department refused to help their beleaguered Embassy and US forces were told to “stand down!”

Yes it has taken 3 years now for America to give Justice to their fallen four soldiers and their Ambassador because this incident happened in September so close to the re-election campaign of US President Barack Obama. So the US State Department argued that there was a video dubbed “Innocence of Muslims” that angered the Muslim community and retaliated at the Americans in Benghazi. I saw that video and I found it funny and without any serious offensive statements against Muslims. Thus began one of the greatest cover-up stories, which could affect the Presidential campaign of former US State Secretary Hillary Clinton.

Somehow, there are similarities to the Mamasapano Incident with the Benghazi Attack in that it has taken even the US government to get into the bottom of this mess…due to the suspected cover-up so that Pres. Obama gets re-elected. Here at home, the Office of the Ombudsman cleared Pres. Aquino of any liability…yet his pal, former PNP Chief Alan Purisima and former Police Director in charge of the SAF Getulio Napeñas and nine other police officers were charged for the Mamasapano. I gathered that there was an order “To stand down” and not help the beleaguered SAF troopers. Who gave that order should be held responsible for the deaths of the fallen SAF 44.

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