Senate resumes Mamasapano incident probe on Monday

Thursday’s (Feb 12, 2015) Senate hearing on the Mamasapano clash (Photo courtesy of Sen. Grace Poe’s Facebook page)

MANILA – The Senate committee on public order and dangerous drugs joined by the committees on peace and unification will resume its public hearings on the Mamasapano incident on Monday, February 23, according to committee chairperson Sen. Grace Poe.

Poe has yet to come out with the list of the resource persons but expected to attend the third hearing on the bloody Mamasapano encounter are the leaders of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and officials Philippine National Police (PNP).

Last Tuesday, Senator Alan Peter Cayetano has requested Poe to conduct two or three more hearings to get the complete picture of the Mamasapano encounter that left 44 PNP Special Action Force (SAF) commandos dead.

Poe has set another inquiry into the Mamasapano incident after resigned PNP Chief Alan Purisima, relieved SAF chief Police Director Getulio Napenas and PNP Intelligence Operation head Fernando Mendez attended separately the executive sessions last Monday and Tuesday.

The Senate panel also held separate executive sessions for SAF survivors.

The 44 SAF troopers were killed when they encountered combined combatants of the MILF and Bangsamoro Isalmic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) while on a mission to capture two high profile terrorists Zulkifli Abdhil alias Marwan and Basit Usman on January 25 in Mamasapano, Maguindanao.

Marwan, prime suspect in the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 209 civilians and had USD5-million bounty on his head, was killed while Usman escaped the operation carried out by 392 SAF troopers.