Duterte, Valeroso ‘should voluntarily appear’ at new Mamasapano probe

Chief Supt. Diosdado Valeroso

ANYONE who claims to have knowledge or evidence about the Mamasapano incident should voluntary appear in the Senate and should not wait to be subpoenaed, Senate Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile said on Monday.

This was Enrile’s reaction when asked about retired police Chief Supt. Diosdado Valeroso, who claimed to have a copy of an audio recording between a “ranking government official” and a “lawmaker” who were supposedly talking about an alleged attempt to cover up the real turn of events on the Mamasapano incident.

READ: Retired cop surfaces with audio recording on Mamasapano cover-up – report

“If they have evidence, it’s up for them to appear. I’m not asking for their appearance. I’m not the committee, you know,” the senator told reporters.

Enrile answered no when asked if Valeroso contacted him or if the audio recording was part of the evidence that he plans to present when the Senate reopens its investigation on Wednesday. It was the senator, who initiated the reopening of the Mamasapano probe.

He said he did not need either Valeroso or Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, who also claimed to have knowledge about the incident, for the reopening of the investigation.

Thrown into the lion’s lair

On Sunday, according to a Philippine Daily Inquirer report, Duterte told relatives of the Philippine National Police Special Action Force (SAF) commandos that the elite troops were ill-prepared for their mission.

“They were thrown into the lion’s lair,” explained the Davao City mayor, who met in Zamboanga City with the survivors and next of kin of the 44 SAF commandos slaughtered in Mamasapano, Maguindanao province, a year ago today by Moro rebels after a raid in which Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan, was killed.

“I know something about the government action during the Mamasapano incident because I was at the base camp with President Aquino, and if I am called to the Senate inquiry I will tell the truth of what I know because I have the moral obligation to tell what I know,” Duterte said during the meeting Sunday.

“If I will be called, I will be forced to tell the truth because I would be under oath, there’s no point in telling a lie with another lie,” he told Erica Pabalinas, the widow of Chief Insp. Ryan Pabalinas, who led the predawn SAF assault on Marwan’s hideout in Mamasapano.

The Davao mayor said he now knew more about the massacre after discussions with military authorities with knowledge of the debacle. “Gibahug yung SAF 44. The men were thrown into the lion’s lair,” he said during the meeting.

Tell the truth

Duterte said he was in Zamboanga City at the time of the massacre in Mamasapano to check on the recent bombings there.

He said that when then Interior Secretary Mar Roxas learned that he was in the area, he asked him to join him and President Aquino at Edwin Andrews Air Force Base at 5:30 p.m. on Jan. 25, 2015.

“What I heard and observed in that base camp was confidential at this time, but if the lies continue, I would be forced to tell the truth,” Duterte said.

He said he had also learned that American agents were present near the Mamasapano area and a helicopter was on standby to receive the finger of Marwan cut by the commandos after they killed the Malaysian bomb-maker.

In reaction, Enrile said: “I do not need them. I don’t know what they have.”

“If they think that what they have is material evidence to be known to the people and they are running for a public office, it’s their duty to speak out without having to be subpoenaed. This is a matter of courage and… moral courage above all,” he further said.

Enrile said he was not also sure of his evidence that he would present would be acceptable but he said, “I’ll present it anyway.”

Asked if Valero’s audio recording could be admitted as evidence, he said: “I don’t know what they have. I cannot pass judgment.”

“You know, this is not a courtroom, where the strict rules of evidence apply. We are not investigators here for prosecution. We are investigators or we conduct these hearings in aid of legislation because we might have to pass laws to correct what happened,” he said. AC

What went before

On January last year, the PNP SAF commandos went to Moro rebel-controlled Mamasapano town in Maguindanao province to arrest Malaysian terrorists Zulkifli bin Hir, alias “Marwan,” and Amin Baco, alias “Jihad,” and their Filipino associate, Basit Usman.

The commandos killed Marwan but Baco and Usman escaped. As they withdrew from the town, the SAF forces ran into rebels from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters. A gun battle that would last for 12 hours began. The battle left 44 SAF troopers, at least 17 MILF rebels and five civilians dead.

Besides the investigation by the PNP board of inquiry, other inquiries into the massacre were conducted by the Senate and the House of Representatives, by the MILF’s special investigation commission and by the International Monitoring Team, a group of foreign military officials that monitors the implementation of the ceasefire agreement between the government and the MILF.

On Feb. 9, the Senate committee on public order, chaired by Sen. Grace Poe, along with the Senate committees on peace and finance, opened an inquiry into the Mamasapano operation.

After five hearings, the Senate committees concluded the inquiry on Feb. 24.

On March 17, Poe presented her committee’s draft report on the Mamasapano clash. Poe said the report was based on five public hearings, five executive sessions and 73 hours of full discussion attended by 37 resource persons and agencies. It was also based on more than 4,300 documents, she said.

The Senate report found that President Aquino had given assent to and had failed to prevent then suspended PNP Director General Alan Purisima’s “unlawful exercise of official functions” of the SAF operation called “Oplan Exodus.”

For this, the report found Mr. Aquino “ultimately responsible for the outcome of the Mamasapano mission and must “bear responsibility” for the carnage.

It also spelled out the liabilities of the personalities involved in the operations but left to government prosecutors to determine their “conclusive liability.”

In September, calls to reopen the inquiry were expressed after President Aquino, in an Inquirer multimedia forum, hinted about an “alternative version” on how Marwan was killed. Mr. Aquino later affirmed that the terrorist was taken down by SAF men who raided his hut. Inquirer Research

Sources: Inquirer Archives