SCUTTLEBUTT

Recurring nightmare

The stories that circulate about the 25 January 2015 massacre of 44 Special Action Force (SAF) members in Tukanalipao, Mamasapano, Maguindanao, continue to percolate due to the tragedy’s lack of closure. As years pass, the carnage has spawned new tales, approximating the mysteries and urban legends that continue to hound the assassination of former US President John F. Kennedy.

A former high-ranking official of the Philippine National Police related that American units that were part of Oplan Exodus paid off commanders of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters and other armed groups in Mamasapano to let the SAF troopers enter the community where top Malaysian terrorist Marwan and his Filipino cohort Usman had taken shelter.

Marwan, or Zulkifli Abdhir, was on the list of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Most Wanted Terrorists. The FBI offered a $5-million reward for information leading to his capture. He was the mastermind behind the manufacture of bombs delivered to several terrorist groups and was suspected of being the ringleader of the 2002 Bali bombings.

The leaders of the armed groups were paid by an American soldier carrying a bag of money before the operation for SAF troopers to have safe passage.

One of the rebel commanders, who was not given the protection money, initiated the firefight between the armed rebels and SAF troopers.

The source said that the late President Noynoy Aquino, then suspended Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Alan Purisima, and ex-PNP-SAF head Getulio Napeñas, including some SAF troopers in the mission, knew about the exchange of money.

The source added that reopening the Mamasapano incident might reveal that it was not even a valid PNP mission since there is no document detailing the mission.

“During the investigations into the incident, nobody asked if a document existed that would prove the legality of the mission, even if it was carried out in a clandestine way,” the source added.

“Even if confidential, the mission should have an official document in black and white,” he said.

The absence of such a document explains the actions of the Department of the Interior and Local Government, under Mar Roxas, and the PNP, under then officer-in-charge Police Deputy Director General Leonardo Espina.

The source said documents on the mission were omitted purposely since many were interested in the FBI bounty.