OUTGOING Justice Secretary Leila de Lima described as “very unfair” the criticism that Department of Justice (DOJ) investigators had whitewashed their probe of the Mamasapano massacre after no one was charged in the deaths of nine of the 44 police commandos who were slain in Maguindanao on Jan. 25.
The second part of the DOJ report on the Mamasapano killings did not recommend the filing of charges against anyone for the deaths of nine members of the 84th Seaborne unit of the police Special Action Force (SAF) who were killed in the operation to capture suspected terrorist Zulkifli Bin Hir, alias Marwan, and others.
Former SAF director Getulio Napeñas said in media interviews on Friday the nine commandos were being “deprived of justice” and that the DOJ must push for charges because “where there’s a will, there’s a way.”
“I suggest that Napeñas and the other critics first read the full text of the second report before passing judgment,” De Lima said in a text message.
Same suspects
Napeñas had said that those who killed the nine and those who killed the 35 other commandos belonging to the 455th Special Action Co. were the “same suspects.”
Sen. Grace Poe, who headed the Senate committee hearings on the SAF operation, said the government should use its “full might” in identifying the killers of the nine.
The special investigation team, composed of prosecutors from the DOJ and the National Bureau of Investigation, recommended charges of direct assault with murder against 90 members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) and private armed groups for the deaths of the 35.
The team was stalled by the lack of witnesses who could identify the men who killed the nine commandos.
“There’s a crime but there are no assailants because there are no witnesses. We can only do so much. We cannot invent our findings,” De Lima said Thursday during the team’s presentation of the second report.