Coloma cites need to tell all about Mamasapano

Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

“There is a need to get to the truth of the matter, the complete truth,” Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said on Sunday, referring to claims and counterclaims involving the killing of Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir, alias “Marwan,” in Mamasapano, Maguindanao province, in January.

The controversy followed President Aquino’s disclosure at the Meet the Inquirer Multimedia forum last week that there was an emerging “alternative truth” to the clash between police commandos and Moro rebels in Mamasapano that the government was investigating.

In a text message to the Inquirer on Sunday, Coloma said there was need to tell all about the Mamasapano clash, as “clearly stated by the President” during his talk with the paper’s editors and reporters.

But like the President, he did not provide details about the ongoing government investigation. “It may be well to wait for the results of the inquiry,” he said.

Coloma also did not comment on the proposed reopening of a Senate investigation of the police Special Action Force (SAF) mission to Mamasapano to take down Marwan.

The SAF reported that its officers killed Marwan in an exchange of gunfire inside the wanted terrorist’s hut in Barangay (village) Pembalkan, Mamasapano, early on Jan. 25. But the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), whose forces were involved in a clash with the police commandos, said there were indications that Marwan was executed, most likely by his own aides.—Jerry E. Esplanada