Zarate: US covering up role in Mamasapano operation

Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate today accused the US government of brazenly covering up its role in the bloody commando operation that resulted to the death of at least 67 Filipinos, including 44 members of the elite police special action force ( SAF) in Mamasapano, Maguindanao last January 25.
“The American government is now brazenly covering its bloody track, especially with the findings of both the Board of Inquiry and the Senate pointing to the participation of US personnel in the Mamasapano debacle,” Rep. Zarate said.
“Just like Pres. Aquino, the lies being peddled by the US are very apparent,” the progressive solon from Mindanao said. He noted that earlier, US embassy spokesman in Manila claimed that personnel of the secretive Joint Special Operations Task Force-Philippines of the US Pacific Command based in Zamboanga City assisted only in the medical evacuation of the wounded and survivors of the bloody encounter. Yet, on Tuesday a Pentagon spokesman claimed that those involved were ‘contracted personnel’ of the US Defense department and not regular US troops.
“Ito ay tahasang palusot lang ng US because as early as June 2014, it already announced that it has already disbanded JSOTF-P. It turned out that this secretive American commando unit was still very much active even during the bloody Mamasapano incident. In fact, the JSOTF-P was only ‘officially’ closed last February 24, or nearly a month after the bloodbath,” Rep. Zarate pointed out.
“Mamasapano is not only an operation that gone horribly bloody wrong but it is also another proof of brazen assault on our sovereignty as a nation. The Mamasapano debacle was clearly a US -instigated operation being part of its so-called “global war on terror”. It is not our war as a people, but, our government blindly embraced it, thus, making us, Filipinos, their dispensable pawns, even cannon-fodders,” Zarate ended.