DAVAO City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte said over the weekend he was studying whether to reveal critical information about the ill-fated mission that killed 44 police commandos in Mamasapano, Maguindanao, on Jan. 25 last year, and that he would be willing to tell the truth “under oath.”
Duterte, a presidential candidate, said he was at the command center in Andrews Base in Zamboanga City with President Benigno Aquino III and then Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas in the afternoon of Jan. 25, and that he knew what transpired in the command center.
“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 because I have the moral obligation to tell what I know,” Duterte said in Zamboanga City.
“If I am called, I will be forced to tell the truth because I would be under oath,” Duterte told the wife of one of the 44 Special Action Force commandos who were killed in a clash with Muslim rebels in Mamasapano on Jan. 25, 2015.
He made his statement even as Liberal Party standard-bearer Roxas on Monday brushed aside Duterte’s latest tirade against him, saying the Partido Demokratikong Pilipino-Laban presidential candidate was using him to gain political mileage.
Duterte had described Roxas as the “most incompetent” among those vying for the presidency in this year’s national elections during a gathering with Filipino-Chinese businessmen.
Roxas said Duterte had no definite plans for the country, and that was the reason he slid to No. 4 in latest Social Weather Stations survey on the presidential bets.
“He is lagging behind in the survey, and that’s why he is again picking on me. I am always his target to promote himself,” Roxas said.
Duterte questioned the Aquino administration’s involvement in the SAF operations, saying it should disclose who claimed the $5-million reward offered for the killing of the international terrorist Zulkifli bin Abdul alias Marwan by the police commandos and how it was divided.
“Where’s the money?” Duterte said. He said the “operators” of the raid that resulted in the death of Marwan and the 44 police commandos must tell the truth.
He said the families of the raiding team who died during the clash with the Muslim rebels must share in the reward money because, “more than anybody else, they made the supreme sacrifice.”
The US government had offered the $5-million reward for the capture or killing of the Malaysian terrorist.
The League of Filipino Students said Monday the Mamasapano debacle would not have happened if President Aquino had not followed the orders of the US government to conduct the operation against Marwan. Aquino should be put behind bars as a result of it. with PNA
