“There will be more of these operations as the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) is implemented,” Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay said, on the first year of commemoration of the Mamasapano carnage.
“There will be more of these operations as the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) is implemented,” Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay said, on the first year of commemoration of the Mamasapano carnage.
This day last year, the whole country was shocked when 44 members of the Philippine National Police Special Action Force died in Mamasapano, Maguindanao for an operation to capture Zulkipli ‘Marwan’ bin Hir, a Malaysian bomb maker and a labeled international terrorist by the US government. “This operation violated a web of agreements, people’s rights and Philippine and international laws,” Palabay explained.
“The operation was first and foremost directed by the US government in pursuit of someone in its terrorist list. The puppet president BS Aquino gladly gave away our sovereignty and entrusted the operation to his friend, Alan Purisima, the suspended PNP Director-General. It has been a year now, yet the regime remains tight-lipped on the truth that everyone knows,” she added.
“More operations to kill or capture perceived enemies of the US are in the horizon with EDCA in place, where the US troops and their war materiel are allowed in Philippine territory,” Palabay said. “Right on cue, there are now insinuations of the existence of ISIS in Mindanao, which could be a convenient justification of the increased deployment of US troops in our country,” Palabay said. ISIS is a terrorist group, known to be funded by the US government and its allied countries in the Middle East in its attempt to topple anti-US governments such as Syria and Iran.
“If it was easy for BS Aquino government to sacrifice its own SAF to kill one man, it will also be willing to throw away the country’s resources to aid the US in its bid to maintain political and economic dominance in the Asia Pacific,” Palabay said.
“As we remember the Aquino regime’s treachery against the Filipino people, we also call for justice for the civilians killed during the Mamasapano carnage,” Palabay said, citing Sarah Panangulon, an 8-year- old girl, who was killed when members of the PNP-SAF entered Tukanalipao in the morning of January 25, 2015. The soldiers indiscriminately fired at Panangulon’s house. A farmer, Badrudin Langalan, was also found dead and hogtied at the now iconic wooden bridge in Tukanalipao, his body riddled with bullets.
PNP-SAF lone survivor PO2 Christopher Lalad shot four MILF members who were resting inside a small mosque. On his way out of the mosque, he shot Mohammad Ambilang, a tricycle driver who was at the opposite end of the wooden bridge in Tukanalipao. Ambilang was gathering the belongings of his aunt who sought refuge at his house because of the bombings. Thousands of people also evacuated as the AFP and PNP launched hot pursuit operations.
“Justice for the victims means BS Aquino should be held accountable and face his crimes—the death of his own forces because he chose to pursue the interest of the US instead of protecting the country’s sovereignty; for the sufferings he has caused the Moro people in Mamasapano and in neighboring communities,” Palabay said.
“Our country would not have ended up with so many sacrificial lambs and victims of right violations if not for US interference in our country. We say US troops out now!” Palabay said. ###