No whitewash in 2nd Mamasapano report – De Lima

MANILA, Philippines - There was no cover-up in the fact-finding probe of the Department of Justice (DOJ) in the case of nine of the 44 police Special Action Force (SAF) commandos slain in the Mamasapano clash last January.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said this yesterday in response to criticisms on the second part of the Mamasapano investigation report released last week where no charges were filed.

In contrast was the case of the 35 SAF men where 90 members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) and private armed groups were charged with direct assault with murder.

De Lima said the insinuation made by critics, including former SAF director Getulio Napeñas, that there could be a whitewash in the probe was “very unfair and unfounded.”

“I suggest that Napeñas and the other critics read first the full text, albeit reducted, of the second report before passing judgment,” she said in a text message.

De Lima explained that the team of DOJ prosecutors and National Bureau of Investigation agents failed to establish the identities of the killers of the commandos from the 84th SAF company in Barangay Pidsandawan last Jan. 25.

“We can only do so much. We cannot invent our findings,” she added.

In the 120-page report, probers concluded that a crime was indeed committed as the death of the nine SAF members was the result of a series of deliberate acts by armed individuals with whom the 84th Seaborne engaged in a brief firefight in the course of the assault on the hut of international terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir alias Marwan.