House panel to stall BBL passage pending Mamasapano incident reports

MANILA, Philippines – The chairman of the House of Representatives ad hoc Bangsamoro committee slammed government agencies for failing to submit satisfactory reports on the Mamasapano clash that killed 44 members of the Special Action Force of the national police.

In an interview Monday evening, Cagayan De Oro Representative Rufus Rodriguez added that the committee will have no choice but to further delay its hearings on the Bangsamoro bill if the panel does not receive the incident reports.

The Bangsamoro bill, a result of decades of peace talks between the government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), face rough sailing due to the MILF’s involvement in the carnage. The bill seeks to create a more politically autonomous Bangsamoro entity.

Rodriguez said only the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) complied with the panel’s order to submit their official report on the attack by the MILF in Mamasapano, Maguindanao.

However, even the report failed to answer pertinent questions on the botched operation that was downplayed as a misencounter, Rodriguez said.

The Philippine National Police, Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process, and the local Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao all failed to submit their reports, he added.

“They should squarely face the issues. With reports like these, they are evading questions we would like to know… With reports like these, this will delay everything,” Rodriguez said.

“Reports of the newspapers are more detailed. This cannot be accepted,” he added.

The panel suspended its executive committee hearing Monday evening pending the submission of the detailed incident reports.

He said the panel set the final deadline for the agencies to submit the reports on February 9.

“That is the D-Day as far as whether or not we should cut the hearings completely until we receive satisfactory reports,” Rodriguez said.

The Bangsamoro committee earlier moved to suspend discussions of national defense, security and public order provisions pending the results of the police investigation.

Several lawmakers have called for suspension of the Bangsamoro hearing pending the results of the inquiry.

In a privilege speech Monday, Zamboanga Del Sur Rep. Aurora Enerio-Cerilles urged Congress to suspend its hearings on the Bangsamoro bill.

The lawmaker, representing the home province of three fatalities in the botched attack, also criticized MILF for purportedly coddling two international terrorists who were the targets of the operation.

“There is an atmosphere of outrage in our country today. Prudence dictates that we should suspend or hold in abeyance our actions or proceedings on this proposed Bangsamoro basic law. Let us be fair to the fallen PNP-SAF men and their families and relatives,” Cerilles said.

“Let us suspend our actions on this bill until the MILF is found innocent from that bloody incident,” she added.

The attack happened on January 25 when the police Special Action Force (SAF) went to an MILF area to serve arrest warrants on bomb experts linked to international terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah. They were fired at by members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) and armed elements of the MILF 105th Base Command.

Authorities had downplayed the attack by the MILF as a misencounter and a result of lack of coordination. MILF lead peace negotiator Mohagher Iqbal meanwhile said the attack by the MILF was only an act of self-defense as the police commandos arrived without warning in the MILF territory.

The Philippine Army failed to send reinforcement during the attack as it was supposedly kept in the dark about the covert operation. Sacked SAF commander Getulio Napeñas has admitted accountability in the botched operation.