Vote for Roxas if he can explain Mamasapano debacle: Duterte

April 16, 2019

Filipinos can vote for senatorial candidate Mar Roxas in the May midterm election if he can explain what happened during the 2015 Mamasapano incident, President Rodrigo Duterte said on Tuesday.

"If he can explain (what happened), you put him on the top spot. I'm telling you to write him (on your ballot), Duterte said during his campaign rally speech in Tuguegarao City, Cagayan.

Duterte questioned the decision of former President Benigno Aquino III and former Interior Secretary Mar Roxas on sending the Philippine National Police Special Action Force to kill Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli Bin Hir alias Marwan.

"Until now I cannot understand and I want to ask, why did the SAF went there?... The firefight was almost one day, until the afternoon. The camp has a regiment just a few kilometer. Why there is no reinforcement?" he said.

Duterte said instead of the police, military should be the one who conduct the operation as they are trained in those kind of topography.

"You sent the police whose training is commando only. Why did you not order the military in front of Mamasapano?" Duterte said.

"They wasted 44 lives for nothing. They wasted lives of 44 policemen who were not used to the terrain," said Duterte.

On January 25, 2015, through "Oplan Exodus", the SAF members conducted a secret operation against Marwan who was killed.

While police commandos were retreating, they encountered armed men including members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front which resulted to 60 people dead, including 44 SAF troopers. Ella Dionisio/DMS