Massacre of 50 PNP SAF PUBLIC OUTCRY OVER SAVAGERY, BRUTALITY

With Dennis Arcon

COTABATO CITY – The number of casualties from the Philippine National Police-Special Action Force (PNP-SAF) in the encounter between the police and members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in Tukalinapao, Mamasapano, Maguindanao has now reached 50.

This was confirmed by Senior Superintendent Noel Armilla, PNP director for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), Monday morning.

The number of casualties is expected to rise as monitoring continues in the area, said Armilla.

It is said that six of the 50 are officers.

Maguindanao remains on alert.

The PNP-SAF was aiming to arrest Zulkifli Bin Hir alias Marwan and Basit Usman, each with a bounty of 5 million US dollars on their head.

The entire Central Mindanao has been enveloped in sadness due to what people are now calling a new Maguindanao massacre. (InterAksyon.com)

Meanwhile, several sectors in Central Mindanao have condemned the brutality and savagery which marked the killing of the SAF policemen.

“Granting that it was a misencounter, was there really a need to kill every policeman who was in that group?,” said one civic leader who refused to be identified.

“The MILF could have called out for the surrender of the outgunned and outnumbered SAF policemen, seized their firearms and turned them over to the CCCH (Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities) as provided for in the ceasefire mechanism,” a local official added.

There is now a growing public outcry against what many described as “unwarranted savagery and brutality” which marked the killing of the policemen, some of whom were reportedly beheaded and mutilated.

(Photo credit: InterAksyon.com photo by Sam Omar shows a civilian stepping on the head of a slain SAF policeman.)