Let’s start digging the Mamasapano tragedy

Did Pres. Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte bring home the proverbial “bacon” or “pasalubong” with his recent visit to the People’s Republic of China? If you consider the $24 billion in investments and grants that the President bagged from his four-day visit to China, then yes he brought in the bacon alright. But in my book, far greater than the $24 billion given by China is the issue of whether our fishermen can fish in the waters off Panatag or Scarborough shoal.

If we based this upon the Philippine STAR headline yesterday which blared, “Rody: Pinoy fishermen may return to Panatag” then we can only take it upon its face value. There is no stopping the fishermen from Zambales from going to Panatag shoals and go fishing. But the million Yuan question is whether or not  Chinese fishermen under the protective umbrella of the Chinese Coast Guard would disturb them. Of course what can we expect Pres. Duterte to tell those fishermen… that they still cannot fish in Panatag Shoals? No sir! Pres. Duterte has to tell them something.

Call it coincidental that Super Typhoon Lawin scared off anything that floats in Northern Luzon so in a way our fishermen have a few days to fish in peace. So let’s cross our fingers that this time around, now that Pres. Duterte has made his “Pivot to China,” the fishermen from Zambales can finally fish in peace.

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There are so many unanswered questions that we have wanted to have investigated, but even the Office of the Ombudsman very quickly and easily dismissed to “protect” her appointing power and one of them is what really happened last Jan. 25, 2015 which in Philippine history is known as the Mamasapano tragedy, where 44 Filipino troopers belonging to the Elite Special Action Force (SAF) died a senseless death in what some people would say a “suicide mission.”

Frankly speaking, I don’t know what triggered Pres. Duterte to seek the reopening of the Mamasapano tragedy while he was still in China, but yes we are a hundred percent in concurrence that the Mamasapano tragedy should be reinvestigated. What I don’t like in the President’s statement is when he said, in seeking to reinvestigate this tragedy… “It is not really to prosecute people, but just to know what happened?” Now I totally disagree with the President’s statements on this. I mean what if in the course of this investigation… we can find persons who should be criminally charged for their role in bringing the SAF 44 to their untimely deaths?

The official government line was that 44 members of the Philippine National Police (PNP) elite SAF along with 17 members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (BIAF) and five civilians were killed in the dawn PNP operation dubbed “Oplan Exodus” in Barangay Tukanalipao, Maguindanao in what was expected to be a simple serving of a warrant of arrest against two high-value terrorist targets, the Malaysian Zulkifi bin Hir a.k.a. Marwan linked to the Jemaah Islamiyah and Abdulbasit Usman of the Abu Sayyaf. That there was a $5 million price on the head of Marwan is still clouded in mystery.

From the initial reports that were uploaded into their Facebook accounts, we saw a white and green Bell 412 helicopter evacuating what seem to be American casualties. Then those photographs were suddenly removed from Facebook. So the big question that remains unanswered today is whether Oplan Exodus was really an American operation, where the top officials of the Aquino regime allowed themselves to be the tools of the Americans in the hope of securing the $5 million bounty on the head of Marwan? With US Ambassador Philip Goldberg leaving the Philippines soon, perhaps he should tells us the full story of who “made money” from Oplan Exodus?

When Pres. Duterte took the reign of government last July, one of the first things he signed was the Freedom of Information (FOI) Executive Order so what I would like to know is how much did Pres. Benigno Aquino know about Oplan Exodus? After that fateful Sunday, how come the President disappeared for three full days, emerging only to attend the reopening of a Mitsubishi car assembly plant in Laguna.

He didn’t even care to meet the fallen 44 SAF troopers in official arrival ceremonies in Villamor Air Base. This enraged the Filipino that we had a heartless President in Pres. Aquino. So let’s begin the Mamasapano investigation, but I would rather that Pres. Duterte create an “Agrava-type” of investigating body so we can really get into the bottom of one of the darkest times of Philippine history. So let’s start digging the Mamasapano tragedy!

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