Where’s promised aid, SAF kin ask gov’t
BAGUIO CITY–The families of 14 Cordilleran members of the Police Special Action Force (SAF), who were killed on Jan. 25 during a botched police operation in Mamasapano, Maguindanao, said government has yet to fulfill its promise to provide them housing, livelihood or employment.
Celestino Bilog, father of slain PO1 Russel Bilog, said the Office of the Presidential Management Staff (PMS) has not contacted them since March, after it required them to submit documents to get assistance. “We were not given exact dates when the assistance would be given. But for housing, we were promised P300,000 each that would have been released first week of June but we have not received any,” Bilog said.
Bilog and the families discussed the government’s unfulfilled promises when they gathered on June 25 during the oathtaking of new criminology graduates of Easter College here.
The families also discussed about the cash donations facilitated and collected by the Philippine National Police (PNP).
They said the only cash donation handed to the families of the slain policemen was the P2.2 million collected through a practice called “binnadang,” which was overseen by three bishops of various Christian denominations in Cordillera.
Like the “bayanihan,” binnadang is the indigenous community obligation to extend assistance to a tribal or community member who is in need.
“We were banking on the livelihood assistance to help us move on,” Bilog said. He said one of his daughters was promised a job abroad during a Senate inquiry into the Mamasapano operations.
Informed about the complaints, Chief Supt. Benjamin Magalong, director of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), said the police were scheduling when the amount would be distributed to the relatives of the slain commandos.
Citing information provided by the PNP officials tasked to handle the SAF donations, Magalong said the agency is working out the handling and transmitting the money. Kimberlie Quitasol, Inquirer Northern Luzon
