EDITORIAL - Waiting for closure and justice

Last year, the carnage led to the collapse of a peace process. Today the search for justice in the slaughter of 44 police commandos in Maguindanao could continue to derail peace efforts in Mindanao.

This brings urgency to speeding up the resolution of the cases related to the police Special Action Force raid in Mamasapano on Jan. 25 last year that led to the killing of top Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir, a.k.a. Marwan. In protecting the terrorist, combined forces of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, its purported splinter group the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters and members of a private armed group raked the raiders with blistering gunfire reportedly from .50-caliber Barrett sniper rifles, mutilating several of the SAF men. Wounded commandos were also finished off as they lay dying.

Last Thursday the Office of the Ombudsman denied appeals and proceeded with the court indictment of former Philippine National Police chief Alan Purisima and the SAF commander at the time of the raid, Getulio Napeñas. The ombudsman’s decision was expected; what the nation is waiting for is the indictment of those who got in the way of the arrest of a top terrorist, and then engaged government forces in a daylong firefight, killing 44 in the worst loss ever for the PNP.

Marwan had a $5-million bounty as a principal suspect in the 2002 nightclub bombings in Bali, Indonesia that left 202 dead, many of them foreign tourists. His activities as a JI bomber had nothing to do with Islamic separatism in the Philippines so rebel groups had no business shielding him from arrest.

Even if the Duterte administration revives the peace process with the MILF, the 44 slain SAF commandos deserve justice and their families need closure. Someone must be held accountable for the deaths of the SAF 44 – not just those who led or supervised the raid, but also those who ordered the rebels to open fire on government forces.