Palace: No whitewash, sacred cows in Mamasapano probe
MANILA, Philippines - Malacañang assured on Monday that there will be no whitewash in the government investigation of the Mamasapano encounter that killed 44 members of the Philippine National Police Special Action Force (SAF) last week.
Presidential Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda also said that the probe being conducted by the executive department's board of inquiry will spare no one.
"We will do injustice to the Fallen 44 if there is such a thing (white wash and sacred cows)," Lacierda told reporters.
"If you want to give justice to the fallen 44, any investigative body whether it's a board of inquiry, the Senate and the House, should really seek the truth. That's the minimum requirement," he also said.
Lacierda said speculations that the government probe on the deadly encounter will not be credible are "unfair."
"I think that's very sad that people would say that considering that it's the police force that lost lives. It's the institution that has lost precious people," he said.
The 44 SAF troopers were killed on January 25 in an armed encounter with members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and other Muslim rebels.
The slain elite cops were supposed to capture Malaysian Zulkifli bin Hir, also known as Marwan, a member of the Jemaah Islamiyah terror network.
Aquino has ordered an investigation while MILF chief Murad Ibrahim has said they will also conduct their own probe.
He vowed justice for the killed policemen and that the board of inquiry will get into the bottom of the incident.
But Aquino himself, the PNP commander-in-chief, is facing allegations that he had a role in the operation, with reports claiming that he supposedly assigned the police mission to suspended PNP chief Alan Purisima.
In his televised address to the nation last week, Aquino was evasive and could not give a clear reply when asked if he indeed took over or gave direct orders to launch the operation.
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