NBI seizes Mamasapano massacre DVDs in Iligan

MANILA, Philippines - The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in Iligan has confiscated some 20 DVD copies of a viral video showing an armed man believed to be a Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) guerrilla finishing off a wounded Special Action Force (SAF) commando.

Alex Carbonay, chief of NBI Iligan, said the DVDs were seized during raids in at least three areas in Iligan that are known sources of pirated DVDs. No arrest was made.

The six-minute video was believed to have been taken in the aftermath of the Jan. 25 clash in Mamasapano, Maguindanao between SAF commandos and fighters of the MILF and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF).

“I was acting on a tip I received yesterday (Thursday) that raw videos of the clash were being sold in the market,” Carbonay told The STAR.

He said the DVDs were being sold clandestinely for P25 apiece to people “who are curious” about what happened in Mamasapano.

Authorities have yet to identify those responsible for uploading the video on Youtube.

“The DVDs were not on display. They were made available on demand,” he said.

Carbonay said he castigated the sellers of the DVD, asking them to be more prudent and sensitive as the spread of the video has become “an emotional issue” affecting the peace process for Mindanao.

“I told them the video can hurt people or spark violence,” he said.

He said viewers of the video should be given proper guidance because its contents were dangerous.

Carbonay said the traders promised to clean their ranks or possibly face criminal charges.

Enhance video

To help in the investigation into the Mamasapano clash, the NBI would enhance the images in the video.

NBI Director Virgilio Mendez said they are still in the process of tracing the source of the video. Images in the video have enabled authorities to identify some of the men involved in the Mamasapano clash.

“We will enhance the photos of the personalities, hoping to identify them for the ongoing investigation of the DOJ-NBI special team,” said NBI cybercrime division head agent Ronald Aguto.

He said investigators have traced the general area of one of the users through an IP address.

“Agents from regional office, with assistance from central office there, are doing the field work. We have the general area,” he said.

Aguto clarified that it is premature to conclude that the owner of the involved IP address is the real source of the video. But the user was one of the first to upload the video on Youtube.

Massacre no doubt

There is no doubt the Mamasapano tragedy was a massacre and not a “misencounter” based on a video that went viral showing a wounded SAF commando being shot by an unidentified man, Sen. Francis Escudero said yesterday.

Escudero also called the uploading of the video in social networking sites as heartless. The man shown finishing off the SAF man has yet to be identified but is presumed to be an MILF fighter.

“Stop calling the Mamasapano tragedy a misencounter, as it is now clear that it was a massacre as revealed by the gruesome video showing how the SAF officers were brutally executed by armed men,” he said. The MILF leadership have called the clash a misencounter.

“This is disturbingly brutal and barbaric and has no place in a civilized society. Conscience and humanity has totally escaped these people and justice must be exacted at all cost,” Escudero added.

The senator reiterated his challenge to the MILF to prove its commitment to peace by surrendering those responsible for the killing of the 44 SAF members.

“I strongly challenge the sincerity and intent of the MILF: identify and surrender your men before the bar of justice. This is part of your commitment to the peace agreement,” Escudero said in a statement.

“Now if you say they are not from your ranks but from the other armed groups, you are still duty-bound to identify and surrender these people who committed the crime,” he added.

“Now, we put to task the MILF to do something, however difficult it may be for them, to help clean the gap and turn in the perpetrators of the Mamasapano massacre. As early as now, help clean the gap between peace and violence,” he said.

Escudero earlier accused Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Teresita Deles for acting like a spokesperson for the MILF instead of pushing the agenda of government.

“Our peace panel representatives cannot toe the line of the government and at the same time be the mouthpiece of the MILF by saying they understand how difficult the situation is with the MILF,” he said.

“You are not between a rock and a hard place; you are in the government. Don’t forget that,” Escudero said.

Gallantry

Meanwhile, Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said accounts from survivors in the Mamasapano incident have underpinned the courage of the SAF commandos who battled it out with hundreds of rebels for hours before getting decimated.

“All I can say is – from what we’ve been told, the gallantry of those policemen is incomprehensible,” Marcos said, referring to the accounts the survivors gave in an executive session at the Senate last Thursday. The two survivors – Supt. Raymond Train, team leader of the 84th SAC and PO2 Christopher Lalan – told senators of their ordeal in Mamasapano.

“What they endured, what they had undergone, their bravery – we, senators could only look at each other and listen in awe,” he said. He declined to give details of the SAF survivors’ stories.

“The room was full of emotions, we were all moved by the survivors’ stories,” another senator said.

Marcos said he could not accept the alibi of 6th Infantry Division chief Brig. Gen. Edmundo Pangilinan for not rushing to the rescue of the embattled SAF men. – With Christina Mendez, Lino dela Cruz