Survivors of the Special Action Force (SAF) assault team that attacked the hut of Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli Bin Hir alias “Marwan” heaved a sigh of relief after President Aquino himself had dispelled speculations that it was not SAF who took down the terrorist.
“Now we can smile. Finally, we were able to convince the President,” a member of the 84th Special Action Company or Seaborne, which comprised the strike force in the raid against Marwan, told INQUIRER.net in an interview.
The former SAF trooper, who had been reassigned to another police unit since the ill-fated January 25 operation, requested not to be identified for security reasons.
He said he and his fellow Mamasapano survivors watched together the five-minute message of the President shown on live television on Thursday afternoon.
According to the police officer, all of them had a positive response to the President’s speech where he called the “alternative version” of the Mamasapano clash “baseless” and now “useless.”
Another SAF trooper who made it out alive in the covert mission said he wants to “thank the President” for addressing claims that Marwan was killed by his aides even before the Seaborne troopers arrived at the hut and cut off his finger for DNA analysis.
“I knew from the start that the truth will eventually come out. We were hurt that our efforts to kill Marwan are being doubted. Pero ngayon kahit papaano, nabunutan kami ng tinik sa dibdib (But now, it feels like a burden was taken off our chest),” he said.
Mamasapano survivors ‘hurt’
But prior to the speech, the survivors expressed their frustration over the doubts cast on the SAF’s version of the incident, saying it has affected the morale of the troopers.
Aquino’s message was a response to claims allegedly from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front that the SAF’s killing of Marwan was merely “a drama.” These allegations came after Aquino revealed in an Inquirer Multimedia forum that an alternative version of the incident is being looked into.
One of the survivors told INQUIRER.net over the phone: “It’s disappointing to see that the President seems to believe the MILF’s version than ours. It’s as if they want to just dissolve the SAF.”
“For us, even a ‘Congratulations’ from the President is enough, and yet we hear these kinds of stories in the news?” another survivor said.
In response to the claims attempting to discredit the SAF, a Seaborne member recounted his ordeal during the tragic operation: “When we went to Marwan’s hut, we really thought there’s no chance for us to survive. I was really lucky that I made it alive.”
“That’s why it really hurts to hear those kinds of allegations after we put our lives at risk,” he added.
Authenticated by NBI
In Malacañang, the President showed photos of Marwan lying dead in his hut at Pembalkan village in Mamasapano, Maguindanao as Senior Inspector Gednat Tabdi, one of the 44 commandos killed in the operation, cuts off a finger from Marwan’s left hand.
A police source said Senior Inspector Lyndon Espe, who was the officer of the Tactical Command Post in Shariff Aguak during the operation, went to the National Bureau of Investigation before Aquino’s 1 p.m. speech for the authentication of the photos.
Espe is currently the commanding officer of the 84th SAC.
The President then said that forensic examiners from the NBI concluded that the pictures presented by the SAF were “authentic and unaltered.” Julliane Love de Jesus/JE