Maniolas

Mar offers sympathy to families of slain SAF men in Baguio. At the Church of the Resurrection in Baguio on Monday, February 2, DILG Secretary Mar Roxas II consoles with Janet Carap, widow of PNP-SAF PO2 Peterson Carap, a Cordillera native and one of the 44 elite police commandos killed in the infamous January 25 Mamasapano clash. Carap asked Roxas to speed up the investigation and resolution to the ongoing probe on the police operation. Dave Leprozo The PNP’s Board of Inquiry (BOI) investigating the Mamasapano clash has documented nearly 300 eyewitness accounts from government troops and civilians, the panel chairman said in a statement Monday. Director Benjamin Magalong, the chief of the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, said the investigators has taken a total of 286 sworn statements mostly from officers and personnel of the Philippine National Police-Special Action Force (PNP-SAF) who took part in the operation, Armed Forces of the Philippines key officers and personnel in central Mindanao, and some civilian witnesses. Forty-four police officers from the elite PNP-SAF were killed during the 11-hour firefight with members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) in Mamasapano, Maguindanao on Sunday. Authorities said 392 PNP-SAF members were involved in the operation to capture suspected terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir alias Marwan, an alleged member of the dreaded Jemaah Islamiya. The BOI expects to get statements from at least 420 individuals to complete its investigation, Magalong said. Members of the panel are police director Read More …

The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) cannot be abolished by the proposed Bangsamoro law currently pending in Congress, a former lawmaker said Monday. Facing senators at a hearing, former House deputy speaker Pablo Garcia said ARMM, being a constitutionally created body, is the most formidable obstacle to the passage of proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), the product of the final agreement between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). “But the intended abolition of ARMM is easier said than done. It cannot be legally done at all. The ARMM being a Constitutional creation cannot be abolished,” said Garcia in his speech during the hearing of the Senate committee on constitutional amendments and revision of codes. He noted that Sec. 5 Article 12 of the proposed law mandates that ARMM should be abolished after the ratification of the BBL, as the two “have the same geographical areas and constitutional areas.” Garcia said the creation of ARMM, including its powers and functions, is in eight sections of the Constitution. “The BBL cannot repeal and nullify a mandate of the Constitution. It has been said that the spring cannot rise above its source… The manner of subdividing the Philippine cannot go out of existence except by Constitutional amendment,” he said. BBL unconstitutional Garcia said the “BBL is palpably and incorrigibly unconstitutional.” “I’d like to begin  by stating the inconvenient yet fundamental and compelling truth: unless and until the Constitution is amended or revised by the Filipino people, Congress cannot and Read More …

Suspended Philippine National Police chief Director General Alan Purisima better show up to the senate inquiry on the Mamasapano clash, lest he look guilty, Senator Grace Poe warned on Sunday. “Papayag na lamang ba kaming hindi sya dadalo? Hindi man umattend si Gen. Purisima sa unang pagdinig, kung kinakailangang magpadala ng mas malakas na demand o subpoena, yan po ay ating kailangang gawin para malaman kung ano ang dapat gawin. Para sakin, mahuhusgahan lamang natin ang tao sa kanyang pagkilos,” Poe told radio dzBB. The Senate committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs as well as the committee on Peace, Unification and Reconciliation will start their investigations into the Mamasapano clash on Wednesday, February 4. Poe said she wanted Purisima to appear before the Senate to explain why he was involved in the clash, despite his suspension over graft charges. “Siya ay inimbitahan natin dahil lumalabas ang kanyang pangalan, at may mga katanungan ding katulad ng kung hindi alam ni Sec. Mar Roxas, at di alam ni Gen. Espina na siyang PNP OIC ngayon, sino ang nag-utos? Kailangan yan ng logistics, kailangan ng pera, anong opisina ang nag-provide nyan kung hindi DILG?” Poe said. Poe also warned that if the investigations discover that Purisima was involved in the Mamasapano operation, his suspension might become permanent. “Kahit na sabihin mong on-leave siya ngayon, may pagkakataon pa, pagkatapos ng anim na buwan, na siya ay bumalik, kung sakali. At siguro namang hindi natin makakalimutan ang nakakalungkot na pangyayaring ito na nawawala siya. Read More …

A grieving Philippine National Police-Special Action Force trooper on Sunday spit back the famous words of the late Sen. Ninoy Aquino in his dismay at the deaths of 44 of his comrades in a firefight in Mamasapano town in Maguindanao.  “This country is not worth dying for sir, kung ang gobyerno natin, sir, hindi kami kayang protektahan,” the elite police officer told Interior Secretary Mar Roxas in an open forum at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig on Sunday.   Aquino, who was assassinated upon his return to the Philippines in 1983, famously quipped that the Filipino is worth dying for.  But the SAF troopers said that there was a limit to that sacrifice, saying they also expected the government to protect them, even as they served the country. “May galit din kami kasi kung maaga talaga na [nagpadala ng] reinforcement, may chance na mabuhay sana ang karamihan,” another SAF trooper said. Still another trooper took the chance to tell Roxas about the many sacrifices troopers have to endure for their job, including leaving their families. “As my son said, ‘Daddy, can’t you just resign and look for another job? Much better and safe and always with us?’” the emotional SAF trooper said. Roxas met with the PNP-SAF Sunday afternoon to share their grief after 44 of their members perished, and 16 others were injured, in an hours-long firefight with members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front last weekend.  The elite police force entered the Read More …

Kin grieve for fallen cops at necrological service. Relatives of the 44 slain PNP-SAF commandos killed in the January 25 Mamasapano clash attend the wake and necrological service at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig on Friday, January 30. President Benigno Aquino III offered his condolences to those left behind by the heroes. Danny Pata Was some P300 million in discretionary presidential intelligence funds used for last week’s operation that killed 44 Special Action Force policemen in Mamasapano, Maguindanao? Militant umbrella group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) on Sunday said President Benigno Aquino III has some explaining to do on the matter. The group said the Mamasapano operation involving 392 SAF troopers would require funding and logistics, and that transporting SAF elements from different parts of the country alone would already require a considerable amount of money. “If the operation was not run via the (Interior department) and the PNP, then someone else must have authorized the funding. The approval can only come from one other source, Malacañang. The funding could have come from the unaudited P300 million intelligence and confidential funds of the President. It would then be easy for Aquino to deny involvement,” Bayan secretary general Renato Reyes Jr. said. “When the President has control of such unaudited funds, it is very easy for him to bypass other government agencies and embark on covert operations that can have disastrous consequences,” he added. Reyes also said suspended Philippine National Police chief Director General Alan Purisima and the United States government should Read More …