Complaints against 90 individuals tagged in the killing of Special Action Force troopers during the controversial Mamasapano operation would be filed in the Department of Justice’s National Prosecution Service (NPS) next week, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said on Thursday.
“We now have the clearance from the President to already file the charges. And the team, the joint [National Bureau of Investigation]-NPS special investigation team, is now ready to file the complaint on Monday,” De Lima told reporters in Malacañang.
READ: Aquino puts an end to ‘baseless’ Mamasapano speculation
“The NBI is the primary complainant as the investigative body and supported by about 33 private complainants composed of the next of kin of the victims,” she added.
De Lima explained the complaint of “complex crime of direct assault with murder” would only cover 35 of the 44 SAF troopers killed in Maguindanao. Meanwhile, of the 90 individuals, 26 are from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), 12 from the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) and 52 from private armed groups, some connected to the infamous Maguindanao massacre.
“That does not cover the nine casualties from the 84th Seaborne because we were not able to find eyewitnesses from their end,” she said.
The 84th Seaborne or Special Action Company (SAC) is the SAF group tasked to serve the warrant of arrest to Marwan. Marwan was allegedly killed during a gunfight with the 84th SAC. Meanwhile, the 35 troopers are from the 55th SAC, which suffered the most casualties.
The 55th SAC was supposed to cover and support the 84th as it attempted to extract Marwan. However, the group was caught in a firefight with armed groups which killed 35 of its members and spared only one. The survivor is PO2 Christopher Lalan.
De Lima was among the Cabinet members who attended President Benigno Aquino III’s press conference on new findings on the Mamasapano incident which resulted in the deaths of 44 SAF troopers, 17 MILF fighters and at least three civilians.
Aquino showed photographs of international terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir, the target of the operation, to prove that it was the SAF that cut off his finger for DNA analysis. He said that the photographs clearly debunked reports that it was not the SAF that killed Marwan and delivered his finger to authorities. Kristine Angeli Sabillo/RC
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