CHR also trying to get MILF side on ‘brutalized’ SAF men

The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) will be conducting its own investigation into the Jan. 25 clash in Mamasapano, Maguindanao province, that left 44 police Special Action Force (SAF) troopers dead—their corpses robbed and disfigured—in an antiterror operation that led to a “misencounter’’ with Moro rebels.

“They should not have been brutalized. There was an excessive use of force, which is a violation of the rules of engagement. And if they were captured, they should not have been killed or tortured, they should be alive,” said CHR Chair Etta Rosales.

A team from the CHR main office in Quezon City would be going to Cotabato City on Feb. 3 and 4 to initiate the probe, Rosales said. They will be meeting with officials of the local government and the Philippine National Police, the international monitoring team on the Mindanao peace process, and other concerned parties.

“We also hope to reach out to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) for their side as well. Everyone is crying out for justice, and we want the truth to come out,” said the CHR chief, one of the government officials who attended the necrological service for the slain police commandos at Camp Bagong Diwa on Friday.

The bereaved families she consoled kept asking her: “Ma’am, what they did was wrong. What about us?” she recalled in an Inquirer interview after the rites.

The CHR probe will come up with its own recommendations to the government regarding what many had called a “massacre’’ of the SAF men, who went into the MILF-held territory in Maguindanao to arrest two high-level international terrorists.

Rosales said the body would look into the incident “through the lens of human rights and international humanitarian law.” Julie M. Aurelio