Prosecutors from Department of Justice are set to fly to Mamasapano in Maguindanao to conduct an ocular inspection of the site where 44 police commandos were killed in an encounter with armed rebels on Jan. 25.
In an interview on Friday, Justice Secrtary Leila de Lima said the prosecutors would be in Mindanao “early next week” to validate sworn statements forwarded and other pieces of evidence sent to DOJ by the Philippine National Police’s Board of Inquiry.
“May tentative na silang plano na mag-ocular to validate iyong mga sinasabi sa mga sworn statements,” De Lima said.
“They (prosecutors) need to be there as part of that evaluation para ma-validate exactly iyong mga location, mga troops and then kung saan nakita si Marwan,” she added.
De Lima said the NPS component of the DOJ’s joint task force would be collating and evaluating the documents for eventual determination of probable cause to charge individuals behind the encounter.
Among the evidence that will be verified by the prosecutors during the Mindanao trip are statements by residents who claimed seeing international terrorist Marwan. Documents from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front’s own investigation on the incident will also be considered.
“Plano na rin ng joint team na iyan na even iyong evidence na makakalap din ng MILF, iyan makukuha rin namin. And I think, I see no problem. I don’t think mahihirapan kami kumuha niyan,” De Lima said.
Also to be evaluated are the statements of the survivors of the clash, as well as other members of the SAF assigned to other units who were nearby when the armed fighting erupted.
“I perused over them (sworn statements) last night kasi kahapon nila (BOI) pinadala. I perused over them… I would ask the NPS to work double time this weekend to evaluate these (documents) para prepared sila when they do the ocular early next week,” De Lima said. —NB, GMA News
