PNP execs gagged over SAF operation?

MANILA, Philippines - Malacañang may have imposed a gag order on Philippine National Police (PNP) officials to keep them from sharing information about the operation that led to the killing of 44 police commandos by fighters of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighter (BIFF), Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said yesterday.

Marcos chairs the Senate committee on local government, which is the lead committee deliberating on the Bangsamoro Basic Law.

He said failure of the government to address the issues arising from Sunday’s tragedy would undermine the peace process, including the passage of the BBL.

“That’s why we need to know who committed lapses, and who in the PNP ordered the SAF to enter the area, and what intelligence information made them conclude that Marwan and Usman were really there,” Marcos said in Filipino.

He was referring to Malaysian bomb expert Zulkifli bin Hir or Abu Marwan and Filipino terrorist Abdulbasit Usman.

The SAF commandos were supposed to arrest the two when they encountered hundreds of MILF and BIFF fighters in Mamasapano last Sunday.

He said a final peace deal with the MILF would be useless if the BIFF would continue to sow terror in Mindanao.

“What is the BIFF’s relationship with the MILF? Now they’re saying it was not an action of the MILF but by the BIFF. Don’t you think we should now include the BIFF in the peace process?”

Unless questions are answered, Marcos said peace would remain elusive in Mindanao.

“All of these questions have to be answered. And this is precisely so that we can attain peace,” he said.

Marcos also said he wants to know whether the BBL crafted by the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPPAP) would need amendments to make it effective.

“And if the BBL in its present form will not bring peace in Mindanao then we need to find out what we need to do so that the BBL will be effective in bringing peace,” he said.