SAF 44 heroism tagged as symbol of PH war on terror

RELATIVES of 44 Special Action Force members, slain in last year’s Mamasapano massacre, gathered by Burnham Lake on Jan. 15 to float candles in the water ahead of the Jan. 25 memorial of the tragedy. EV ESPIRITU/ INQUIRER NORTHERN LUZON

BAGUIO CITY—The country needs to celebrate the heroism of the 44 Special Action Force (SAF) commandos killed during a mission to capture or kill a Malaysian terrorist in Mamasapano, Maguindanao province, on Jan. 25 last year, because their deaths symbolize the country’s commitment to the war on terror, according to their widows and their former commander.

Forgetting would be a disservice to the 44 SAF troopers who were trapped and killed by Moro militiamen while the rest of their team located and killed suspected serial bomber Zulkifli bin Hir, aka “Marwan,” said retired SAF commander Getulio Napeñas Jr., who joined the SAF 44 widows at a memorial in Burnham Park here on Saturday.

The memorial gathered families from as far as Mindanao and was staged ahead of the Jan. 27 reopening of the Senate inquiry into the Mamasapano case.

The outpouring of public support for the SAF 44 had helped the families deal with their loss, Napeñas said, adding that they hoped it would continue after the first memorial.

Napeñas said keeping a memorial alive would honor not just the 44 slain commandos but also others before them who died trying to arrest Marwan.

“The first operation against Marwan was in 2006, and two SAF troopers lost their lives in North Cotabato. And no one remembers,” he said in a speech he gave to the families.

He said Marwan would have been arrested at the time but was able to flee allegedly due to the intervention of a group talking peace with the government.

He said their primary goal is to counter terrorism, and Marwan’s presence in the country had always “pained” the SAF.

“We could not take it sitting down. He was an international terrorist who was in the Philippines and nothing was being done by the security forces [to detain him]. [His presence] did not give justice to the hundreds he killed, and the ones he would have killed in the future,” Napeñas said.

He said: “Some discredited us, saying we [conducted] the Mamasapano operation because of the [bounty put up for Marwan’s arrest]. Not a single centavo went to us. Until now I do not know if the informant [who led the SAF to Marwan’s lair] has received the bounty or not.”

“We never spoke about [the bounty] when we started planning against these terrorists. Money and glory were never part of the discussion,” he said. Vincent Cabreza, Inquirer Northern Luzon