Commander in Mamasapano carnage now no. 2 in PA

A senior Army commander in Central Mindanao during the Mamasapano incident early last year has been designated to become the second in command of the Philippine Army.

Maj. Gen. Edmundo Pangilinan, commander of the 6th Infantry Division based in Awang, Maguindanao, was installed as vice commander of the 80,000-strong Philippine Army yesterday.

Pangilinan’s replacement has yet to be of- ficially announced, through there were reports he will be replaced by Maj. Gen. Carlito Galvez, the incumbent Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief of staff for Operations (J3).

Retiring from the service this coming November, Pangilinan, then commander of the 6th Infantry Division, defended his actions in Mamasapano, citing the lack of coordination with the military by the police.

A total of 60 people, including 44 Special Action Force (SAF) policemen, were killed in the firefight with Muslim rebels in Mamasapano on Jan. 25 last year.

The slain policemen were part of a SAF operation to arrest Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan, and other terrorists hiding in a remote village in Mamasapano.

The police operation went awry after the SAF commandos figured in a firefight with Muslim rebels on their way out of the area.

At the height of the fighting, the ambushed SAF troopers asked for police and military reinforcements that never came.

Pangilinan said he could not just order the delivery of artillery fire and close-air support to the beleaguered policemen without the policemen’s actual location as against the supposed targets.

When finally military reinforcement came in late afternoon, only one of the SAF raiding party survived the carnage.