DOJ summons 30 SAF commandos for probe

MANILA, Philippines  — The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Thursday summoned thirty members of the police Special Action Force to appear at the hearing on the Mamasapano encounter that claimed the lives of 44 SAF troopers in January.

The SAF commandos asked to attend the DOJ hearing failed to appear before the preliminary hearing on Thursday.

Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Rose Anne Balauag failed to send the subpoena for the 30 troopers to subscribe to their sworn affidavits.

Only four SAF officials, headed by Chief Superintendent Noli Talino, were able to appear before the hearing and execute their affidavits.

Talino then suggested to prosecutors to issue a subpoena through the Philippine National Police (PNP) Directorate for personnel and records.

The 30 PNP-SAF members were earlier probed by the PNP Board of Inquiry.

Meanwhile, only three of the more then 90 respondents in the case of complex crime of direct assault with murder and theft have filed their respective counter-affidavits through their lawyers.

The case was only intended for the death of 35 PNP-SAF commandos killed in a cornfield in a Tucanalipao, Mamasapano, Maguindanao on January 25.

The case for the death of the nine other PNP-SAF members killed in the nipa hut where terror suspect Zulkifli Abdhir alias Marwan was killed was not filed for lack of witnesses at the scene.