Duterte: SAF 44 sent to lion’s lair
Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte watches President Aquino’s SONA during the public viewing at the People’s Park Photo courtesy of the City Information Office
ZAMBOANGA CITY—“Gibahug yung SAF 44,” presidential aspirant Rodrigo Duterte Sunday told relatives of the Philippine National Police Special Action Force (SAF) commandos, using the Cebuano term that meant the elite troops were ill-prepared for their mission.
“They were thrown into the lion’s lair,” explained the Davao City mayor, who met in Zamboanga City with the survivors and next of kin of the 44 SAF commandos slaughtered in Mamasapano, Maguindanao province, a year ago today by Moro rebels after a raid in which Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan, was killed.
“I know something about the government action during the Mamasapano incident because I was at the base camp with President Aquino, and if I am called to the Senate inquiry I will tell the truth of what I know because I have the moral obligation to tell what I know,” Duterte said during the meeting Sunday.
“If I will be called, I will be forced to tell the truth because I would be under oath, there’s no point in telling a lie with another lie,” he told Erica Pabalinas, the widow of Chief Insp. Ryan Pabalinas, who led the predawn SAF assault on Marwan’s hideout in Mamasapano.
Duterte, who was accompanied by Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, his running mate in the May presidential election, flew to Zamboanga City on the eve of the first anniversary of the massacre that triggered a nationwide public outrage and derailed the timeline for the setting up of new autonomous region in Mindanao envisioned in a peace agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
The Davao mayor said he now knew more about the massacre after discussions with military authorities with knowledge of the debacle. “Gibahug yung SAF 44. The men were thrown into the lion’s lair,” he said during the meeting.
Tell the truth
Duterte said he was in Zamboanga City at the time of the massacre in Mamasapano to check on the recent bombings there.
He said that when then Interior Secretary Mar Roxas learned that he was in the area, he asked him to join him and President Aquino at Edwin Andrews Air Force Base at 5:30 p.m. on Jan. 25, 2015.
READ: Aquino upset when he flew to Zamboanga on day of SAF-MILF clash – source
“What I heard and observed in that base camp was confidential at this time, but if the lies continue, I would be forced to tell the truth,” Duterte said.
He said he had also learned that American agents were present near the Mamasapano area and a helicopter was on standby to receive the finger of Marwan cut by the commandos after they killed the Malaysian bomb-maker.
Except for legal benefits, the next of kin of the SAF 44 had not received other promised assistance from the government, Pabalinas told the Inquirer.
The widow said she would attend the reopening of the Senate hearing on the Mamasapano massacre on Wednesday but would skip the ceremony today (Monday) during which two SAF commandos would receive the Medal of Valor, the highest military award conferred on a Filipino soldier for courage in battle.
She also said some of the survivors of the SAF 44 had been pressured to attend the ceremony. “They said they had received calls and forced to attend the ceremony otherwise they will lose their jobs in the government,” she said.
No help came
Retired Supt. Nelson Pabalinas, father of the slain SAF commando leader, said he knew the risks of being in the service. “But what hurts me most is the way they were ditched by no less than their brothers in arms,” he said.
“There was enough time to send reinforcement to save the lives of the 44 SAF victims. But our government did not take any action. My son and his colleagues became virtual sitting ducks,” he said. “The encounter broke out around 3 a.m. and my son who led the operation had contacts with the tactical operations center until 5 a.m. Time elapsed but until 12 noon, no reinforcement came,” the elder Pabalinas disclosed.
“Friendly troops were just nearby but no help came. The reason was they were afraid that the number of casualties would increase. Does it mean the government is no longer capable of dealing with that kind of situation?”
The elder Pabalinas does not expect to get justice under the Aquino administration.
“Maybe, under the next administration. Under the current leadership, there’s no hope for justice,” Nelson Pabalinas told the Inquirer. “There’s no justice in sight. Truth has not yet come out. I hope and pray, we will be able to find justice when the new administration takes over.”
On Wednesday, the Senate committee on public order and dangerous drugs, at the behest of Senate Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile, is scheduled to reopen its inquiry into the slaughter, saying he has evidence to show that Mr. Aquino allowed the SAF commandos to die.
The Senate committee led by Sen. Grace Poe concluded in its investigation last year that President Aquino was ultimately responsible for the debacle, primarily because he allowed PNP Director General Alan Purisima to participate in the planning of the operation even if Purisima was then under suspension by the Ombudsman.
“The buck stops with the President,” said Ruby Senin, sister of PO2 Romeo Senin, a SAF who was killed in Mamasapano.
For Senin, all those involved in the planning and execution of the Mamasapano project should be held accountable. “Who led the operation? Who made the decision to go on with the operation?” she said.
Marilyn Tayros, sister of Senior Insp. Reinier Tayros, another SAF fatality, said the President, who was in Zamboanga City on that fateful day, failed to act swiftly to save the commandos.
“It seemed like the government betrayed the SAF 44. The fighting lasted for 10 hours, the SAF men asked for reinforcement but none arrived until they died one after the other,” Tayros said.
Command responsibility
An independent senatorial candidate, former Akbayan Rep. Walden Bello, who quit an alliance with Mr. Aquino in the aftermath of the Mamasapano incident, said Sunday the President owed the public an explanation of what happened in Maguindanao a year ago.
In a statement, Bello said Mr. Aquino’s refusal to accept command responsibility stemmed from “his desperate desire to protect himself and his cronies from going to jail once he leaves office.”
In so doing, Bello said, “the President—the very person whom we are counting on and who in fact swore to uphold the rule of law and ensure justice for all Filipinos—has been the very person who is perpetrating impunity and who is depriving the Mamasapano victims of the justice they deserve.”
Presidential Communication Secretary Herminio Coloma dismissed Bello’s allegation as “unfounded,” adding that Mr. Aquino “has faced squarely all the issues pertaining to the [Mamasapano] incident.”
The President had said he was taking responsibility for the episode, Coloma said.
No alternative truth
“As we grieve and recognize their extraordinary courage, we also pray and call for the truth to come out and for justice to be served to the SAF 44 and their loved ones,” Vice President Jejomar Binay said in a statement Sunday.
Binay said the families of the SAF 44 and the people were “still waiting for answers.”
“There is no alternative truth, as some have postulated. There is only the plain, unembellished truth, no matter how painful it may turn out to be,” the Vice President said. He dismissed as “empty rhetoric” the government’s promise to deliver justice for the SAF 44.
Also issuing statements marking the first anniversary of the incident were Senate President Franklin Drilon and Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who urged the completion of the government’s own investigation into the Mamasapano incident. The Department of Justice was still in the midst of a preliminary investigation of the massacre.
“I urge the authorities handling the Mamasapano case to expedite their investigation and ensure that the guilty will be punished,” Drilon said.
Marcos called on Justice Secretary Emmanuel Caparas to resolve immediately the preliminary investigation on Mamasapano and file the appropriate cases in court.
“I don’t know why it’s taking the DOJ so long. There were eyewitness accounts, there were videos and other kinds of evidence so it’s really puzzling why until now we have not heard of any positive development in the Mamasapano case,” Marcos said. With reports from DJ Yap and Christine O. Avendaño in Manila
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