Finally, a hope for justice for the fallen 44

I was watching the live TV coverage of Pres. Rodrigo Duterte’s speech when he met with the families of the 44 fallen Philippine National Police (PNP) Special Action Force (SAF) members and clearly, the President was deeply touched that two years after that horrible incident, justice has not been given to the fallen PNP troopers. We wrote a full article on the Mamasapano massacre last Tuesday and it does seem that Pres. Duterte read our thoughts, even if he really did not want to dig deeper into this mess.

We know well enough that in the past six months in office, Pres. Duterte avoided even mentioning the name of his predecessor, even if the latter was responsible for making this nation into a narco state. But in that meeting with the families of the fallen SAF troopers, Pres. Duterte pointed out and directly addressed his predecessor, “Itong Mamasapano, I would like to lay the predicate. I will address myself to former president Aquino. I do not have any quarrel with you. I do not want to disturb your life now that you are retired and so with general (Allan) Purisima and the others.”

“Why send SAF when SAF is organized and geared into the service to meet the challenges of urban terrorism? Urban is urban. It should only be in the city; And they are practically surrounding the Mamasapano area. Why were the Army not deployed? And why was it under wraps? And why did you keep it secret that this was actually an operation of the CIA?”

Indeed Oplan Exodus was clearly a CIA operation and no less than then president Aquino showed his fealty to the US by leading this delicate operation, even allowing his trusted but suspended friend PNP chief Alan Purisima to prepare the details of the implementation of Oplan Exodus. But the questions that Pres. Duterte asked the other day were never asked during the Senate Investigation during Aquino’s time.

As of presstime, former president Aquino has not issued any response to Pres. Duterte’s queries. Then Pres. Duterte addressed former president Aquino again by asking him, “Sabihin mo sa Pilipino, sabihin mo sa akin kung paano ka nagkasala? At anong ginawa ninyo bakit ( Tell the Filipino, tell me why you failed, and why you did that) you fed the soldiers to the lion’s den, to be eaten by death?” When P- Noy was president, no one would dare ask him such a disturbing question.

Pres. Duterte then called for the creation of a Truth Commission to ascertain persons responsible for the blotched Oplan Exodus incident that led to the deaths of SAF troopers. This commission will be composed of justices of the Supreme Court and private individuals that should conduct a thorough and impartial investigation and hopefully they can finish their work before the third anniversary of the Mamasapano massacre. The President also promised to bestow upon each of the fallen 44 a Medal of Valor, something that was given only to a few SAF troopers. With this piece of news, there is hope that the families of the fallen SAF will get justice for their kin!

* * * How things have changed in Malacañang since president Aquino ended his reign. Now what we are getting is real transparency under Pres. Rodrigo Duterte. When the breaking news of that embarrassing incident where Korean national Jee Ick Joo was kidnapped and killed by Angeles City policemen, (this was first exposed by Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson) after a thorough investigation on this case, last Tuesday Malacañang spokesperson Ernesto Abella issued a statement of condolences and sympathies to the South Korean government and an apology to Mrs. Choi Kyung Jin, the widow of Jee Ick Joo coming from Pres. Duterte.

On August 2010 when then president Aquino was new in Malacañang, eight Hong Kong tourists were

killed by a deranged police officer at the Quirino Grandstand… and despite earnest efforts urging then Pres. Aquino to issue an apology to the Hong Kong Government or to the People’s Republic of China, he never apologized for that incident. * * * If at all there was anything I didn’t like with the speech of Pres. Duterte last Tuesday, it is that he continued to lambast the Catholic Church, notably the Church leaders, especially Bishop Teodoro Bacani whom the President said had two wives. How I wish that someone would whisper in the President’s ear that while he may be right to lambast our church leaders for using the pulpit during elections, however he must be told that when he attacks the Catholic Church, he also attacks our Lord Jesus Christ and the Catholic faithful many of whom like me voted for him for President. Yesterday was the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul and in that encounter our Lord Jesus Christ asked Saul “Why does thou persecute me? Saul asked “Who are you Lord?” Jesus replied, “I am Jesus whom you persecute.” But read your Bibles; they never met before this incident happened. * * *