Citizen Noy sued over SAF 44 deaths
By: Jovic Yee, Marc Jayson Cayabyab
@inquirerdotnet
INQUIRER.net and Philippine Daily Inquirer
01:24 AM July 2nd, 2016
An anticrime watchdog filed a criminal complaint on Friday against former President Benigno Aquino III over the botched Mamasapano incident that led to the deaths of 44 Special Action Force (SAF) officers, a day after he shed his presidential immunity from criminal prosecution.
The Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) asked the Office of the Ombudsman to indict Aquino for reckless imprudence resulting in homicide for his alleged role in the failed “Oplan Exodus†operation. The same complaint was also filed against dismissed Philippine National Police Chief Alan Purisima and sacked SAF Director Getulio Napeñas, who planned and directed the operation.
VACC chair Dante Jimenez accompanied Erlinda Allaga and Warlito Mejia in filing the complaint. Their sons, PO3 Robert Allaga and PO2 Ephraim Mejia, were among the 44 elite officers who were killed when they came under heavy fire from Moro rebels on Jan. 25 last year.
The subject of the operation was Zulkifli bin Hir, alias “Marwan,†a known bombmaker responsible for attacks in Southeast Asia. Marwan, who had a $5-million bounty on his head offered by the US government, was also slain in the operation.
But Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) fighters in the town of Mamasapano in Maguindanao province, who claimed to be unaware of the police operation, engaged the officers in an intense firefight, leading to the mass casualties. At least 20 MILF fighters were also killed in the clashes.
The crisis was the worst to hit the Aquino administration last year, and led to Congress stalling the passage of the Bangsamoro Basic Law that would have granted the MILF an expanded autonomy in the South.
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