Manila Times/Luna, La Union

It is not ghosts or spirits that haunt president Benigno Aquino 3rd but the spectre of the slaying of 44 police commandos in Mamasapano, Maguindanao, early this year.
Yesterday, senator Ferdinand Bongbong” Marcos Jr maintained that Aquino should apologise to the families of the 44 slain Special Action Force (SAF) members and release all benefits due them.
Marcos visited the tomb of police officer 3 Omar Nacionales here. Nacionales was one of the policemen mowed down by members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and other armed groups in January 2015.
“The ultimate blame lies with the president and if that is the case, the conclusion that we come to is that the president will not only apologize but to give all the demands, all those that they have promised to the surviving families and file charges against those involved in the massacre,” Marcos said after consoling Nacionales’ widow, Gae Ann, also a SAF member, at the Luna Memorial Cemetery.
Nacionales’ mother is a native of Ilocos Norte.
Marcos said a senate report on the Mamasapano incident showed that the Philippine National Police’s chain of command was broken when Aquino, dismissed PNP chief Alan Purisima and then SAF chief general Getulio Napeñas, who is also a native of Luna, proceeded with the Mamasapano operation without informing then PNP officer-in-charge Leonardo Espina.
“He [Aquino] is the commander-in-chief and it seems that they have broken the PNP’s chain of command that’s why it caused problems. So I think those identified in the senate report should be included [in the case],” the senator said.
The senate report submitted by senator Grace Poe, head of the senate Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs, found Aquino ultimately responsible for the Mamasapano tragedy.
Marcos deplored the slow investigation of cases against those involved in the killing.
“There is already a report by the National Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Justice (DOJ) already identified the suspects. I just don’t know why there is no case filed yet. Justice delayed, justice denied. That’s why we have to remind them on the heroism of SAF 44,” he said.
Malacañang has vowed an impartial and thorough investigation of the criminal charges against 90 commanders and members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) and private armed groups (PAGs) reportedly involved in the death of Special Action Force (SAF) police commandos during the Mamasapano clash last January 25.
According to presidential communications secretary Herminio Coloma Jr, the Aquino administration is firmly committed to upholding the rule of law without fear or favor.
“Let the legal process prevail in a fair and reasonable way,” Coloma told the media in a text message.
Some 90 commanders and members of MILF, BIFF and PAGs have been summoned by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to a preliminary investigation hearing next month to answer complaints of direct assault with murder and theft filed against them by a government fact-finding team last month.
Prosecutor general Claro Arellano, chief of the DOJ’s prosecutorial arm, said hearings for the preliminary investigation have been set for November 11 and 27, both at 10am at the justice department’s executive lounge.
According to Arellano, a subpoena for the MILF respondents was served through the MILF leadership and the Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities.
A subpoena for respondents from BIFF and PAGs, on the other hand, was served through Mamasapano mayor Benzar Ampatuan.
The DOJ panel is headed by senior assistant state prosecutor Rosanne Balauag with assistant state prosecutors Aldrin Evangelista, Benito Oliver Sales 3rd, Rasssendell Rex Gingoyon and Alexander Suarez as members.
The preliminary investigation hearing will determine if there exists probable cause to warrant filing of the charges of direct assault with murder and theft against the respondents.
Facing the DOJ probe are 13 commanders of the MILF and six of the BIFF.
But the names of the respondents were not made public so as to prevent them from evading possible prosecution.
The respondents were accused of acting “in conspiracy with one another to attack, employ force, seriously intimidate or resist the 35 SAF commandos, who were uniformed police officers and, thus persons in authority”.
The fact-finding team of prosecutors and National Bureau of Investigation agents based the report on accounts of eyewitnesses—including alias Marathon—who identified the liable MILF and BIFF commanders and have been placed under the government’s Witness Protection Programme.
Based on results of the probe, the killings of the SAF commandos appeared to be “spontaneous and not an institutional act of the MILF”.
The charges covered the cases of 35 slain SAF men who belonged to the 55th SAF company that engaged MILF and BIFF fighters and PAGs in the cornfields of Barangay Tukanalipao.