Palace: Government, MILF must study proposal for independent Mamasapano probe

MILF Chief Peace Negotiator Mohagher Iqbal at Thursday’s (Feb 12, 2015) Senate hearing on the Mamasapano clash (Photo courtesy of Sen. Grace Poe’s Facebook page)

MANILA  — Chief negotiator of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) Mohagher Iqbal’s call for an independent body to investigate the deadly Mamasapano clash must be studied thoroughly, a Palace official said on Friday.

“Kailangan pong pag-aralan ang panukalang ito (We need to study this proposal),” Communication Secretary Herminio Coloma, Jr. said during a press briefing when asked about Iqbal’s proposal.

During the Senate hearing on the Maguindanao incident on Thursday, Iqbal suggested the participation of the United Nations to do an inquiry to ensure an impartial investigation.

Iqbal said that aside from their own investigation, they were pushing for an independent probe on the Mamasapano incident.

He said that they were encountering such problems as perception and speculation.

The MILF, he said, is willing to meet with its government counterparts to discuss further the independent investigation.

The government has created a Board of Inquiry to investigate what happened in the Mamasapano incident. The MILF is also doing its own probe.

The government and the MILF signed a peace pact last year and is working for a Bangsamoro political entity when the Mamasapano incident occurred.

Special Action Force (SAF) commandos targeted terrorist suspects, Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan, and Basit Usman, on January 25, but they clashed with members of the MILF and Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters as they were moving out of the area.

The encounter left 44 SAF commandos dead.