“Wounds be healed” after SAF 44 incident

MOVING ON --- Mamasapano Mayor Tahirodin Benzar A. Ampatuan hopes to heal all wounds after commemorating the second year of the Mamasapano Incident. (Anne B. Acosta - MINDANAO EXPOSE’)

COTABATO CITY --- “Life goes on.” This was the statement of Mamasapano Mayor Tahirodin Benzar A. Ampatuan after commemorating last January 25 the second year of the so-called Mamasapano Incident that caused the loss of lives of 44  members of the PNP Special Action Force (SAF).

Ampatuan said the Mamasapano Incident mey never be forgotten but he hopes all wounds could be healed in God’s perfect time, most especially on the part of the families of the slain ones.

“It has been two years since the tragic incident and we only hope for all wounded hearts to be completely healed,” he said.

Ampatuan expressed his gratitude to the government and other funding donor organizations on their support towards the development of Mamasapano, specifically in Barangay Tukanalipao, scene of the bloody skirmishes that also exacted tolls on some members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, private armed groups,  and counts of innocent civilians caught in the crossfire.

“We are more than thankful for the bridge, road network, gymnasium, livelihood programs, and other infrastructure projects which poured in to our beloved municipality right after the incident,” he said.

Physical infrastructures and development projects poured into the municipality to lift up the spirit of the populace from depression and poverty and enjoin the constituents there to live and embrace the path of peace. Further, the development initiatives were also meant to transform the community as a zone of peace where people of different affiliations/persuasions can live in harmony in the absence of conflict and animosity.

On Wednesday last week, some protesters marched to the Ombudsman's office carrying a cross bearing the name of the slain police commandos.

Bayan Secretary General Renato Reyes welcomed President Rodrigo Duterte's decision to reopen the investigation of the Mamasapano clash with a fact-finding commission and supported Duterte's statement calling the Mamasapano clash a Central Intellgience Agency-directed operation.

“The investigating team should be truly independent and capable of producing credible results,” said Reyes.

Atty. Ferdinand Topacio, legal counsel for the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption, lambasted the decision of Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales to only file graft and usurpation of public functions charges against former PNP chief Alan Purisima and former PNP-SAF director Getulio Napeñas, Jr. even if the VACC had earlier included them in the multiple homicide charges it filed against former President Benigno Aquino III.

“While the Ombudsman does not see Aquino guilty of graft and usurpation of public functions, the multiple homicide charge is a totally different ball game,” he said.

Accordingly, the SAF members were conducting the covert PNP-SAF operation Oplan Exodus aimed at neutralizing high-profile Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir alias Marwan and Filipino bomb maker Abdul Bassit Usman when they were killed.

However, the clash ended with the tragic deaths of the 44 commandos on January 25, 2015, the biggest loss of government elite forces in Philippine history.A total of 67 people died in the Mamasapano clash. (GILMHAR A. LAO & ANNE B. ACOSTA - MINDANAO EXPOSE’)