EDITORIAL – What now for the Mamasapano case?

Five years on, justice for the Mamasapano clash --or as some call it the Mamasapano massacre-- still has to be achieved.

Almost everyone is familiar with the story. Three Special Action Force (SAF) platoons were sent after Malaysian bomb maker Zulkifli Abdhir, alias “Marwan,” and Abdul Basit Usman on January 25, 2015. The raiding platoon was able to neutralize Marwan and exit the area safely.

However, a smaller blocking force of SAF troopers was left behind and caught between forces of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, and other armed groups in the area that responded after the firefight that resulted after Marwan decided to resist.

A combination of indecisive leadership and miscommunication led to chaos and the SAF platoon was overwhelmed before reinforcements could be sent to help them.

As a result, 44 SAF commandos were killed, some of whom were executed as they lay gravely wounded. Some of their executioners even recorded their deaths and put the videos up online.

Of course, the story caused outrage. Fingers were and cases were filed. And, as is often the case in this country, the judicial process moved on slow, creaking wheels.

However, unlike developments of another massacre case --albeit under totally different circumstances-- the developments of this case do not seem to be going the way the family and loved ones of the 44 troopers want.

Last September, former president Benigno “PNoy” Aquino III was cleared of homicide charges in relation to the incident. Just a few days earlier a special division of the Sandiganbayan cleared former PNP director Alan Purisima and former SAF chief Getulio Napeñas who were charged with graft and usurpation of functions in connection with the Mamasapano incident.

With the latest development in the case, it’s not really clear if justice will ever be served.

Right now, the only ray of hope the family and loved ones of the SAF 44 have left is a Senate inquiry Senator Richard Gordon is mulling into the dismissal of Purisima and Napeñas.

While it may not be the development many are hoping for, for now it’s seems to be the only one where the case is concerned. Because we don’t want those 44 troopers to have died in vain, let’s hope others can still explore other avenues this case can take on the road to justice.