The January 25 incident which led to the unfortunate deaths of 44 troopers from the Special Action Force unit of the Philippine National Police (PNP) remains a sore open wound that continues to worsen with the unfolding revelations in the both the Senate and the House of Representatives. During the inquiry at the House it was revealed there were reliable intelligence reports showing that the MILF had used the ceasefire to mount a massive recruitment and military training activities in Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Lanao del Norte, Sultan Kudarat, Saranggani, Zamboanga Peninsula, Basilan, North Cotabato and Sulu. This revelation was like rubbing salt on the wound in light of the video that has gone viral of a wounded SAF trooper that was shot in the head by suspected members of the MILF.
What has made the situation worse for this administration is the callousness that the President and the members of the peace panel have shown in terms of connecting with the grieving families, both in shoring up enough sensitivity and the “cojones” to stand up for the brutal killing of the SAF troopers (instead of practically absconding the criminal liability of the members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) involved), and the obvious effort to shield the President from his command responsibility for the debacle. Currently the public outcry is at an all-time high. With Church officials now joining the call for the President to resign and rumors of an impending coup, even those sectors who have been “most tolerant” of this administration’s “inconsistencies” are now up in an uproar and Malacañang is full throttle in applying damage control to mitigate. The recent decision of the administration controlled House leadership to suspend the hearing on the SAF44 is an obvious sign that this administration is desperate to stem the tide of public opinion against them.
To date, the testimonies that we have heard in both the Senate and House inquiries has left two questions hanging. First, despite their denials, the PNP and AFP were very much capable of pinpointing the exact location of our SAF troops during the firefight. And I have it on good authority that the Americans were flying their drones all the while, hence, we could have easily reinforced our troops. Even assuming for the sake of argument that we really could not pinpoint their exact locations, we have air assets which we could have easily dispatched considering the length of the fire fight. Any air asset over the area would have easily dissuaded the enemy from ganging up on our beleaguered soldiers. If you remember during one of the coups during the first Aquino administration which was on the verge of toppling the government, the US government which was aligned with the then administration flew their jets over the capital. This effectively stemmed the tide for the government. How easily this should have been done for the SAF44. Even without firing a single shot, the act of flying one of our OV-10s would have saved both the SAF44 and the peace agreement. Second, news reports are now saying that mortars were used on our troops by the rebels. The AFP has already stated that they were prevented from using mortars because the location of our troops could not be pinpointed. If indeed mortar shells were found on the field of battle, this only means that it is the enemy which launched them. The question now is, isn’t the use of mortar shells as well as the presence of a known terrorist in your area which is totally in your control a sign that one is not keeping in good faith your end of the peace agreement?
Definitely, these burning concerns and issues over the events before and after the bloody Mamasapano operation remain unresolved. Within this backdrop a number of foreign governments have issued statements condemning the acts of terrorism together with their support to our government for its “unyielding commitment to the peace process” and the hope that the peace process would survive the unfortunate January 25 incident.
One thing for sure is that we cannot achieve peace without justice and accountability after what happened in Mamasapano.