Opposition Senator Leila de Lima on Sunday called for an independent investigation into the bloody December 29, 2021 joint military and police raid in Pikit, Cotabato that left six people dead.
De Lima said an independent fact-finding committee is necessary considering the contradicting accounts of the police and residents of the area. At the minimum, the senator said there also seems to be a violation of the ceasefire protocols agreed upon by the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
Residents had questioned the police report describing the fatalities as motorcycle “thieves.” The people in the area, an MILF community, also said they did not harbor members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), as police had claimed.
“Imagine, in the wee hours, while the targets and eventual casualties of a bloody show of force were in peaceful slumber, government forces attacked like thieves in the night. The circumstances surrounding the raid should, at the very least, raise suspicion,” De Lima stated in her latest statement.
“No color of authority – even warrants supposedly legally issue – should be conveniently used as a license to perpetrate what is being characterized by residents/witnesses as a massacre,” she said.
The joint raid, which involved 400 alleged stolen motorcycles, reportedly took place in Gokotan village in Pikit, Cotabato, killing six individuals and wounding three policemen and a civilian.
At the minimum, De Lima said the raid might have ben a breach of the ceasefire agreement which requires government forces to inform and coordinate with the MILF before any military or police operation is conducted.
“They seem to have completely disregarded the AHJAG’s (MILF Ad hoc Joint Action Group) mandate which is to ensure that law enforcement operations are effectively conducted without jeopardizing the ceasefire between the government and the MILF,” she said.
“Government forces simply cannot barge in and do whatever they want when an Agreement is in place specifically to prevent them from doing that in the first place. Due process has to account for something,” she added.
The lawmaker also reminded the government it cannot keep calling for peace when it blatantly disregards peace protocols.
“This fragile peace can ill-afford any incident that could threaten to undermine the decades of work it took to achieve it. Attaining peace is only half the struggle; keeping it is another battle altogether,” she said.
“I can only hope that the Duterte administration knows the stakes that they are playing with before they shut the door on yet another self-proclaimed case of ‘nanlaban’ (self-defense). Remember, it won’t be long before this alibi will soon lose currency and go down with Duterte,” she stressed.
At the very least, De Lima said the government owes the targets, the government forces, the residents and bystanders, the MILF and the entire nation of the truth of the encounter.
“That is the only way that our hopes for true and durabable peace can still be saved,” she stressed.