The quoted statement below is Senator Leila de Lima's Facebook Notes on the Mamasapano raid. We find it necessary to publish Senator de Lima's "notes" as they contain legal principles or opinions that are of public importance in the determination of what is legal or not.
The Mamasapano incident was about the massacre of 44 elite policemen at the Mamasapano corn field by the BIFF (and MILF) rebels during the presidency of Noynoy Aquino.
ABS-CBN News reported that "The main target of the anti-terror raid, Zulkifli bin Hir alias Marwan, was killed, but at the expense of the cops who clashed with private armed groups, the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), and even the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which at the time was in peace negotiations with the government."
Most critics of the Duterte Administration believed that the revival of the Mamasapano raid is President Duterte's strategy to redirect the public's dismay and frustration over the murder by the policemen of a Korean businessman named Ick-Joo Jee inside Camp Crame and the BI (Bureau of Immigration) Bribery Scandal involving Jack Lam and Duterte's fraternity brothers.
Read ABS-CBN News: After Duterte attack, Aquino to speak out on Mamasapano
Reported Rappler: "Aquino said the ill-fated operation that killed elite police members from the Special Acton Forces (SAF) was not his fault, as he insisted former SAF director Getulio Napeñas lied to him and failed to follow his orders."
Read Rappler: Two years after Mamasapano: What has happened to the case?
Senator Leila de Lima said: "The second anniversary of the Mamasapano incident is again being used by Duterte to divert attention from the crisis his current leadership is facing, rather than to actually give justice to the SAF and Muslim civilian victims of that armed encounter."On the government’s plan to reopen investigation on the Mamasapano incident
Leila de Lima · Wednesday, January 25, 2017
The second anniversary of the Mamasapano incident is again being used by Duterte to divert attention from the crisis his current leadership is facing, rather than to actually give justice to the SAF and Muslim civilian victims of that armed encounter.
This appears to be the primary motivation of the President in continuously harping on the Mamasapano incident. It is to continuously demonize the past administration in order to cover up for his own lack of accomplishments and direction after six months into his term.
Any further probe on the Mamasapano incident is best conducted shorn of politics. Duterte is the least qualified in directing such a probe given his propensity for prejudgement and to preempt the results of any investigation, as he himself has already declared the Mamasapano police action as a CIA operation.
The Ombudsman as an independent constitutional office is in the best position to conduct any further probe on the Mamasapano incident. Any other investigation initiated by the President would be a mere surplusage the results of which will always be doubted for his obvious bias against the past administration.
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