Today the country observes the National Day of Mourning for the 44 elite cops of the Philippine National Police-Special Action Force slain in a clash with Moro Islamic Liberation Front troops in Mamasapano, Maguindanao. We mourn with a country that dreams of peace and clamors for truth and justice for the victims.

Courtesy of PNP.

Prayer rally and candlelight vigil

Meanwhile, Ako ang Simula ng Pagbabago, a multi-sectoral group of active and retired military and police officers and personnel together with civil society groups and religious leaders are calling on all those seeking justice and genuine change to proceed to the EDSA Shrine before 6pm today 30 January for a prayer rally and candle light vigil.

Bring candles and rosaries and also prepare for a long drawn vigil until Justice is served and genuine change is set into motion, according to the organizers. Please pass this message through social media and text messages to all our friends and families.

US agents paid cash for info on terrorists

Jeoffrey Maitem and Allan Nawal, Inquirer, January 30, 2015

COTABATO CITY, Philippines—In a meeting held at the headquarters of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao police in Parang town, Maguindanao province, sometime in September last year, agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and ranking Filipino police officials planned a secret operation aimed at getting a notorious international terrorist, a source who declined to be identified told the Inquirer.

The source said the target was on Washington’s list of priority terrorists: Malaysian Zulkifli bin Hir, alias “Marwan,” who had a $5-million price then on his head. The bounty was later raised to $6 million.

The Inquirer source, a former ranking police official in Central Mindanao, claimed that during the meeting, which he attended, the FBI agents shared an intelligence report on the exact whereabouts of Marwan and another terrorist, Filipino Abdul Basit Usman.

The source said the Americans were certain about their intelligence data because it was provided by a mole from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

To prevent leak

“They were paid cash in exchange for the information,” the source said.

The source said the FBI agents validated the information relayed to them by their mole through the use of “drones and global positioning system.”

“We can even see the hideout of their target,” he said.

During the meeting, it was decided that those involved in the operation would not share information with any other government agencies “to prevent a leak of the plan.”

“They will only coordinate with other government troops—posted along the highway—on their way to their mission,” he added.

The source said, however, that the glaring failure on the part of the police commandos who went to Tukanalipao, a village in Mamasapano town, Maguindanao, controlled by the MILF, was going in without back-up hardware and reinforcements.

Capt. Jo-anne Petinglay, spokesperson for the military’s 6th Infantry Division, admitted that US forces “come and go.”

“They are based in Manila and Zamboanga. We don’t have US troops [based] here [in Maguindanao],” she said.

As to the alleged involvement of US troops in the Philippine National Police Special Action Force (PNP-SAF) operation on Jan. 25 that cost the lives of 44 police commandos, Petinglay said she was not aware of it.

She said what she knew was that US forces helped extract injured SAF commandos using a helicopter.

The Inquirer saw this helicopter, a white and green chopper manned by four Americans.

In Davao City, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) in Southern Mindanao said it wanted to know the role of the US military in the SAF operation.

Bayan spokesperson Sheena Duazo said the SAF operation was possibly a joint covert-operation with the United States.

“The unfortunate members of the police operation seem to be victims of the latest US-directed antiterror operation sanctioned by President Aquino’s government,” she said.

6,000 US troops

“We want to know what really happened, and why US soldiers are seen with the dead bodies of the PNP-SAF. Are they here just to help the wounded and carry the dead, or is this another one of their botched operations, similar to many of their operations in the Middle East? Is this another case of an imperialist country providing a pretext for its further involvement in local conflict, even if it means death to our fellow Filipinos?” Duazo asked.

Duazo said the Visiting Forces Agreement and the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement have ushered in “increasing US military intervention in the Philippines.”

“The 6,000 or so US troops currently deployed in Mindanao may be doing more things on the island that the Filipino public has no knowledge of. President Aquino’s government owes the public [an explanation],” she added. - Full story on Inquirer

AQUINO ON TOP OF BOTCHED MAGUINDANAO OPS

In his obsession to obtain the peace agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) as a political trophy, President Aquino deliberately ignored the pleas from the Philippine National Police-Special Action Force (PNP-SAF) for additional reinforcement to rescue trapped operatives from their dire position.

This was bared to The Tribune by a source within the PNP saying not only was Aquino informed beforehand of the SAF operation against Malay-sian Zulkifli bin Hir, alias “Mar-wan,” believed to be a key leader of the al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islam-iyah, and his alleged Filipino henchman, Abdul Basit Usman, but that he was actually on top of the operation itself.

“The President was actually monitoring the operation. Everything was being reported to him in real time,” said the source.

According to the source, Aquino was in Zamboanga that time, waiting in the wings for the outcome of the operation, ready to jump anytime to Maguindanao should the two suspected terrorists be captured.

“But when the operation went out of control as the MILF and the BIFF Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters) joined forces in attacking the SAF, the President refused to send any reinforcement even as the SAF were already crying for help from heir beleaguered position,” the source said.

Aquino, the source said, cannot deny the fact that he was aware all the time of the SAF operation.

“SAF Commander (Police Director Getulio) Napeñas gave it away. He said that a little less than two hours before the initial gunfighting, the joint monitoring team of the MILF and the government called for a ceasefire. As no one was supposed to have been informed of the operation except (suspended) PNP Chief Alan Purisima, Acting Chief Leonardo Espina, (Executve Secretary Paquito) Ochoa and the President, who could make this possible? No one but the President. He could have called (Presidential Adviser on Peace Process) Teresita Deles to inform the monitoring team of both sides and call for a ceasefire but unfortunately, it didn’t work,” said the source.

In an interview with another national daily, Napeñas averred the joint monitoring team from the MILF and the government called for a ceasefire at a little past 6 am, but the “MILF did not stop shooting.”

“General Napeñas said the ceasefire was called for by the monitoring teams of both sides at a little past 6 am, less than two hours after the first shot was fired around 4:20 am. But the gun battle lasted 11 hours until 3:00 pm, and the nearest Army station is only about one kilometer away from where the gun battle was happening, but no reinforcement was sent,” said the source.

“If the President could make a call so early in the morning to Deles so she could in turn call on the monitoring teams to call for a ceasefire, why can’t he make a call to ask the Armed Forces to send reinforcement for the beleaguered SAF personnel?” the source asked.

“Because he was advised by Deles not to do so. They were so obsessed with the peace agreement, they want to save the Bangsamoro Basic Law as they believe it was the last piece for Aquino to earn the Nobel Peace Prize,” said the source.

“Never mind if 50 dedicated cops were killed,” he lamented. - Tribune