As I mentioned a while back, 14 of the 44 Special Action Force troopers who were slaughtered in Mamapasano in January 25, 2015 came from indigenous peoples communities in the Cordillera region.
Well, their surviving families finally get to meet President Duterte early this week in Malacanang where they got to express their collective disappointment as to how justice has continued to elude them two years since the event.
From the pictures, I think I could spot several relatives of the victims, especially the women who were clad in the signature tapis, a woven traditional wrap-around worn by women in Benguet.
If I am not mistaken, I think I also spotted the couple Garcia and Edna Tabdi from the capital town of La Trinidad, the parents of SAF officer PCI Gednat G. Tabdi who died with 43 of his men along a cornfield in Mamasapano.
The couple lodged a civil case at the Regional Trial Court of Benguet against former police chief Alan Purisima, police director Getulio Napena and three army officials for neglect of duty.
The respondents included Army M/Gen. Edmundo Pangilinan (then commander of the 8th Infantry Division), Lt. Gen. Rustico Guerrero in his capacity as Western Mindanao commander and Col. Gener del Rosario, then brigade commander of the 1st Mechanized Infantry brigade.
The Tabdi family was asking the court to order the respondents to pay P12 Million in damages for the young police officer’s death.
The family said Purisima failed to ensure artillery support for the Mamasapano operation that could have saved the lives of the beleaguered police rangers. Napenas was accused of negligence for reporting and receiving orders from Purisima who was not in active duty at the time.
Finally, the army officers were included for not providing aid to the SAF troopers.
Last we heard, the court has dismissed motions from Purisima,et.al. to dismiss the case.
With the order of President Duterte to re-investigate the botched police operation, there is high expectation mostly on the part of the surviving families of the slain police officers and troopers that justice will be finally attained and for the case to attain closure to the satisfaction of all parties concerned.
To provide an insight into the life of some of the slain troopers, I took the liberty in lifting from several write-ups written by the former Baguio journalist Annabelle C. Bangsoy which was posted on Facebook by her hubby Alexander. This is the same couple that managed to raise more than P2Million pesos in the afternoon of the incident which they distributed to the families of the victims.
The first write-up concerned PO2 Walner Danao:
DADALHIN KITA SA LA PRESA
“Naku, walang binatbat etong Zamboanga niyo sa ganda ng Baguio,”PO2 Walner Danao, one of the dead 14 Cordilleran heroes used to say to his young wife Emeliza.
Before he was ordered to go to the Mamasapano mission to serve the arrest warrant on international terrorist Marwan, he made a beautiful promise to his wife that they will do together:”Dadalhin kita sa La Presa.” He wants to show Emeliza a romantic and grandiose view of Baguio from the top, as popularized by the TV soap opera.
He said the place is actually called Mt. Sto. Tomas and his childhood home in Irisan is not really far. Emeliza held on to that promise, that’s why she was relieved when Walner called from the operation site telling her to take care
of herself and not to let their one year old baby cry. There was a long silence after that call and no information was coming from the field.
Then when Emeliza called again, another voice answered her using her husband’s phone: “Asawa ba eto o kabit? Si Bryan ‘to, kalaban. Patay na asawa mo. Patay na sila lahat, ” the cold-blooded voice answered.
Trying to stop my own tears from falling as Emeliza recounted her story to me during the wake, I just encouraged her to take a selfie with her baby in Mt. Sto. Tomas. The billowy clouds that settle on the mountain might still witness a promise fulfilled.”
(‘La Presa’ of course refers to the site of a tele-novela circa 2015 that was the sitting of a love story involving a city boy and a girl in the boondocks. The place was declared off-limits to tourists by virtue of a Writ of Kalikasan order of the Supreme Court that banned development in the place.)
The second write-up concerned PO2 Noble S. Kiangan:
“ATE, MAGKITA KITA SANA TAYO”
Cordilleran SAF PO2 Noble Sungay Kiangan , lone bomb expert among the gallant SAF 44 called both his older sisters before the operation. An older sister who works as an OFW in Hongkong and another one in Mankayan, Benguet told relatives their SAF younger brother called them simultaneously to request for a get together before he was picked to go on a mission which is now known as the botched Mamasapano Operation Wolverine.
“Manang ada kuma pagkikitaan tayo,” Noble was quoted as saying to his older sisters who assured him an occasion will soon come when they will see each other. He was even picked and scheduled to train at a US Federal government military facility this year in North Carolina. It was an opportunity he was proud to share with his family, confiding to his siblings that he will reach the rank of a captain someday. The night during Operation Wolverine, Noble’s mother, a retired teacher dreamt that her brood of ten is incomplete with one child missing. But the first report from the field didn’t include Noble as among the casualties. Then as the body bags were brought home, Noble’s mother received a mangled and incomplete version of her boy, cold and lifeless, with some of his bodyparts missing.”
The third was that of PO1 Russel Bilog:
RUSSEL WOULD HAVE WALKED THE AISLE THIS APRIL
Cordilleran SAF PO1 hero Russel Bilog would have walked the aisle this April if his leaders sent the needed reinforcement the SAF boys on the Mamasapano field have asked for repeatedly but none came, as the other party whom the government is courting for their version of peace shot them at close range, whacked them like animals, took their clothes off and robbed them.Russel, according to his cousin who shared his story, fell twice as he was shot in the legs but still managed to crawl with his team and with determination fought the rebels though severely injured. But the team run out of ammunition since no reinforcement came and they were over-powered.
He was shot in his shoulder, shot several times in his arms and legs then his face was shot at close range that caused his left eye to be dismembered from his face. His family, whom he helped financially being the eldest in a brood of six said if only there was reinforcement, Russel would have married his girlfriend this April (in 2015)
But they were made to understand, among other reasons that it was the BBL that halted immediate military support for the SAF boys in the field. It didn’t matter that a terrorist was being coddled by the MILF.
