Senator Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III has called for calmness amid
calls for the resignation of President Benigno S. Aquino III over the
deaths of 44 Special Action Force (SAF) commandos of the Philippine
National Police (PNP) in an encounter in Mamasapano, Maguindanao last
Jan. 25.
”If any, the resignation of the President will only be
counter-productive since this will lead to a shake-up in the government.
In this highly volatile situation, we need a leader. We need the
President to lead us out of these dark days,” Pimentel said in a press
statement.
Pimentel said he understand the sentiments of the people “but what we
need right now is to find out the truth about the incident.”
”Let’s ferret out the truth so that we can bring to the bar of
justice those who are accountable for the deaths of our fallen 44
heroes,” Pimentel, a Mindanao lawmaker, said.
Pimentel has instead asked the public to give the President and the government “a chance to right the wrong.”
Last Friday (Feb. 6), President Aquino accepted effective immediately
the resignation of suspended PNP chief Director General Alan Purisima
amid reports that the latter directed the operation to get two
high-profile terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan, and Abdul Basit
Usman despite being suspended by the Ombudsman on corruption charges.
Marwan was killed in the operation but 44 of the 392 SAF men were
also killed after they encountered a combined forces of the Moro Islamic
Liberation Front (MILF) and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters
(BIFF).
Usman, also a bomb maker like Marwan, was able to escape, prompting
President Aquino to ask the MILF cooperation to arrest the terrorist
BIFF commander.
The Senate is set to conduct an inquiry on the Mamasapano encounter on Monday (Feb. 9).
The Senate Committee on Local Government has also temporarily
suspended its public hearing on the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL)
following the encounter between the SAF troopers and the MILF and BIFF
forces. (PNA)
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