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It will be quite a walk.
“The Philippine National Police Academy (PNPA) Alumni Association Inc. will hold a nationwide march on Sunday, March 8 at the end of the traditional 40-day mourning for the 44 Special Action Force troopers slaughtered in Mamasapano, Maguindanao province, on Jan. 25,” reports Julie M. Aurelio in Philippine Daily Inquirer.
The report noted: “The ‘March for Justice for SAF 44’ on March 8 will begin in Dasmariñas City, Cavite province, and will end with an ecumenical Mass at Quezon Memorial Circle (QMC) in Quezon City. Alumni. It is open to the public.”
The PNPA said the march would be in two phases:
1. The 44-kilometer walk from Salitran, Dasmariñas, to the PNP headquarters in Camp Crame, Quezon City. The assembly point for the first phase will be at Central Mall Dasmariñas on Emilio Aguinaldo Highway in Salitran at 2am on Mar 8.
2. The walk from Camp Crame to QMC. Alumni and other participants from the uniformed services will assemble in front of Camp Crame Grandstand, while civilians will assemble at Camp Crame Gate I along Edsa by 5am. The final march to QMC will begin at 6 a.m. upon the arrival of the joggers from Cavite, while the Mass at QMC will be held at 10am.
The encounter in Mamasapano, Maguindanao on Jan 25 left 44 members of the elite Philippine National Police (PNP) Special Action Force (SAF) dead. The PNP-SAF troopers had been out to capture Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir alias “Marwan” and Filipino bomb maker Abdul Basit Usman. Both men had bounties on their heads placed by the U.S. government: US$5 million for Marwan and US$1 million for Usman.
The operation turned bloody when members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) said they had to fight back because the PNP-SAF had breached their territory. They alleged that they had not been informed about the operation to get Marwan and Usman. The hostile encounter lasted 11 hours. The MILF lost 18 of their fighters.
Both the government and the MILF are currently doing probes on the Mamsapano encounter to determine what went wrong, as the incident threatens the Bangsamoro peace deal. It has since been revealed that the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) and even some armed civilians were also involved in the clash.
Photo: Dennis Datu, dzMM (Twitter)
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