“IT’S about time to put closure to this.”
That was what Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo said Wednesday after President Rodrigo Duterte said that he would create a seven-man commission that would investigate the botched operation in Mamasapano, Maguindanao, on January 25, 2015.
Two years since the tragic incident happened, Panelo said investigations have been conducted from several government bodies but the case against those who should be held accountable is still not moving.
“It appears to us that there seems to be no movement in that direction. So I think it’s about time to put closure to this,” Panelo told reporters.
“There has been speculation about who really committed the wrongs? How the wrong was committed? And it’s about time that we determine the whys and the wherefores of that tragedy. That is why the President created independent commission,” he added.
During the Aquino administration, a Special Action Force (SAF) operation was organized to target terrorists Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan, and Andul Bassit Usman. The SAF troopers, however, had been engaged in a clash with rebels, killing at least 67 individuals, including the 44 elite policemen.
On Tuesday, the President told the families of the slain SAF troopers that he would create a fact-finding body similar to Agrava commission, which was tasked to investigate the assassination of the late senator Benigno Aquino Jr.
“I will appoint men of integrity and honor and if they will accept, then, I will choose mostly the justices of the Supreme Court, maybe a few from the civilian sector, maybe a lawyer,” Duterte said.
“I will bestow upon that commission the powers that were exactly given to Agrava commission which probed the death of Aquino. Let us see. All they have to do, at the end of the year, they can have the truth,” he added.
Panelo said it is about time to conduct another investigation to ferret out the truth since the past administration “was biased on certain allies subjected to investigation.”
“Under the law, there is something such as criminal responsibility. There is also so-called reckless imprudence. We have to determine that – exactly, who are responsible and what is the extent of their responsibility, whether administrative or criminal liability, as well as civil liability,” he said.
Duterte had slammed his predecessor, former President Benigno Aquino III, for failing to complete the findings of the Mamasapano probe.
He also claimed the covert operation was an “American adventure with cooperation of some, and apparently, with [Aquino’s blessing.”
Duterte had said Aquino fed the SAF troopers “to the lion’s den to be eaten by death.”
Asked if the re-opening of the investigation was aimed at pinning Aquino, Panelo said, “Definitely not. We are creating the commission or the President is creating the commission precisely to determine the facts, the real facts behind the tragedy.”
Panelo assured that the commission would not be influenced by the Duterte administration as the chief executive would pick “independent thinkers and doers.” (VoxPop Philippines)
