Progressive groups allied with Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) marched to Mendiola and the US Embassy on February 4 and urged PNoy to step down.
“Today we march to hold President Aquino, General Purisima and the US government accountable for the numerous deaths in Mamasapano. They are the architects who are criminally liable for the bloody encounter,” said Bayan secretary general Renato Reyes, Jr.
On January 25, 44 commandos of the PNP-Special Action Forces were killed in a covert operation purportedly to serve a warrant of arrest to suspected Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Adhir, alias ‘Marwan’ in Mamasapano, Maguindanao, an identified Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) base. Many top-ranking government officials, including Secretary of Interior and Local Government and head of national police Mar Roxas, said they did not know of the said covert operation. Many top-ranking officials of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) also claimed no knowledge of the operation, that was only coordinated with them when it was time to airlift bodies of the SAF because they have the required equipment. The operation was also not coordinated with the MILF, which has signed a peace pact with the Philippine government in March 2014.
After a brief program on Mendiola bridge, the protesters marched towards the US Embassy at Roxas Boulevard to denounce the alleged connivance between the U.S. Government, President Aquino and suspended PNP Chief Purisima in hatching “Operation Wolverine”.
Operation Wolverine is the codename of the police operation to capture ‘Marwan’ and another Filipino terrorist, Basit Usman, both suspected to be in Mamasapano. Both suspects are considered ‘high value targets’ with $5 million in reward money offered for Marwan’s capture, while Usman’s capture carries a $1 million bounty.
The operation proved costly for government forces, with 44 killed and 14 wounded on the side of the PNP-SAF. Eleven were killed and nine were wounded on the side of the MILF.
Civilians were not spared from the police operation. According to an earlier news report by Pinoy Weekly, a child, Sarah Panangulon died after sustaining gunshot wounds after PNP-SAF forces fired indiscriminately on their family’s hut upon suspicion that Marwan was there. Her parents, Tot and Sandra Panangulon were both injured.
The news report also stated that Badrudin Langalan, a farmer from Barangay Tukanalipao, was found hogtied and dead at the wooden bridge near the site of the battle.
“How many more Moro lives will be sacrificed in America’s war against terror? We are always accused of being terrorists or coddlers of terrorists,” said Amirah Lidasan, National President of Suara Bangsamoro, in front of the US Embassy.
Suara Bangsamoro is an organization of Moro people established to uphold Moro peoples’ rights and welfare.
Lidasan also told of eyewitness accounts of American troops participating in actual combat operations in Barangay Tukanalipao, Mamapasano.
In a news report also by Pinoy Weekly, a farmer witnessed a “blue-eyed soldier” amongst those killed. Eyewitness accounts affirm that ‘specific bodies’ were airlifted by a helicopter which arrived early at the scene.
“It is but natural for the US government to deny participation because it failed,” said Reyes.
Police sympathy
In the past, protesters wanting to get near the US Embassy were blocked at U.N. Avenue by riot police from the Manila Police District. This time around, protesters were allowed to hold a program at the US Embassy’s periphery, just a few meters away the main gate of the Embassy building along Roxas Boulevard.
Police officers’ have black ribbons tied around the badges pinned on their uniforms.
“We sympathize with the Fallen 44,” said Manila Police Superintendent Marcelino Pedroso Jr.
“But we still need to maintain peace and order along Roxas Boulevard,” he added.
‘No Bail Peace Prize’, resignation and imprisonment sought
“The President’s ambition is to bag the Nobel Peace Prize,” said Vencer Crisostomo, Chairperson of Anakbayan.
“Instead, we should give him the ‘No-Bail’ prize. He should be imprisoned and held accountable for the loss of lives,” Crisostomo added.
“Turn your backs and arrest the man responsible for the deaths of your colleagues,” the youth leader told the police on duty.
SC ruling on DAP comes out amid Mamasapano controversy
At the House of Representatives, the Makabayan coalition has also called for President Aquino’s resignation.
Bayan Muna Partylist representative Neri Colmenares said that “President Aquino is unfit to rule and has betrayed public trust. This is evident in the bloody Mamasapano fiasco and the unconstitutional Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) as affirmed by the most recent Supreme Court decision”.
In a February 3, 2015 ruling, the Supreme Court upheld its July 1, 2014 decision that the DAP is unconstitutional.
In a televised news conference, Atty. Theodore Te of the Supreme Court affirmed that a substantial part of the Aquino administration’s DAP, supposedly created to hasten public spending, violates Section 25 (5), Article VI of the 1987 Constitution and the doctrine of separation of powers of the administrator and legislative branches.
The latest ruling also said that only authors of the DAP are liable. In the original ruling, project implementors and proponents are to be held liable “unless there are concrete findings of good faith in their favor by the proper tribunals determining their criminal, civil, administrative and other liabilities.”
Liberal Party stalwart and Department of Budget and Management Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad is said to have authored the DAP, but President Aquino signed on all the disbursements.
Renato Reyes of BAYAN said that more protests are expected leading up to the first month of the Mamapasano incident, which coincides with the People Power EDSA Revolution of 1986 that placed Corazon Aquino, PNoy’s mother, in the presidency.
