Mamasapano massacreand Bloody memory, lessons, opportunities and business to some

MAMASAPANO, Maguindanao (Jan. 25) – Two years have
passed after the bloody Mamasapano massacre, waters along a river here that
served as silent witness to one of the country’s bloodiest police operation are
now quite.

Another silent witness, a wooden bridge, was gone
and a new concrete pathway connects one side of the river to the other in
Barangay Tukanalipao.

The corn fields, where many of special state police officers
died, remain but with new corn crops, standing green and proud, ready to be
harvested as the country commemorates today what is now known as the Mamasapano
massacre.

But the side events of the clash between the PNP
Special Action Force and Moro rebels and bandits, cannot be easily forgotten.

For Bai Monera Adil, the pain of losing her entire
roadside variety store still lingers on two years after the January 25, 2015
carnage.

Bai Monera did not lose any love one or a relative
in the firefight but her wealth, a roadside variety store that the elite police
unit, according to her, feasted on while waiting for orders from their
superiors.

Bai Monera said the other group of SAF, not engaged
in actual battle, waited on a road beside her store. As soon as the SAF troopers and soldier
arrived, Bai Monera and her family decided to leave the variety store-cum
family home because the presence of huge number of state forces would surely
mean war. She had many experiences in the past and that was what she felt. So
off she left with the family.

She may not have any relative killed in the
skirmishes that followed but her small business was killed.

The next morning she evacuated, she learned of the
skirmishes that started early Sunday morning and lasted until past noon. Her store was kilometers away from the clash
site so she decided to return and checked on her goods. Fighting was still going on, she could recall
gun bursts of automatic rifles were still clearly heard.

But what sent her speechless was what she found
out. Her store was empty, chicken and
ducks nearby were gone but the police blocking force were still nearby.

So she asked the state troopers why her store was
empty and was told they took and ate what was in her store.

She was told the PNP-SAF will replenish all the food
and goods that they took from her store she filled with goods out of a loan of
P70,000.

Until now I am yet to receive the replenishment or
the payment, Bai Monera said.

Where is the promised payment, it has been two
years since the Mamasapano encounter, the talkative Bai Monera said.

They (SAF) ate all my goods and chicken, canned
goods, took my cigarettes, sugar, coffee, soy sauce, everything…my rice was
cooked too, she said.

They told me to wait for payment...waiting for two
years is too long, too long for a poor woman like me, Bai Monera said in
Filipino.

While the Mamasapano massacre that left 66 persons
dead, 44 of them SAF elite unit and the rest were Moro rebels and bandits, it was
a business opportunity and effective branding to some, including Taps Ali, a
Maguindanaon entrepreneur of Barangay Tukanalipao.

Ali used the name SAF 44 in branding his small karenderia
(restaurant), now a favorite snack house for students.

Ali’s noodles store, was named after SAF 44
because a bowl of noodles plus two pandesal (bread) would cost a student P44.

Near the Mamasapano river was a variety store named
SAF 44, in remembrance of the fallen SAF troopers.

The locals said the memory of Fallen SAF 44 is
part of Mamasapano’s history and to its people.

SAF 44 is very popular here so he named his
pansitan (noodle store) to the slain police officers. The business is good because of the name,
he added.

After the infamous encounter that led to the death
of the country’s most wanted man, Zulkifli bin Hir, the Indonesian bomb experts
who trained locals in bomb-making, development projects came over.

A new school building was built, a bridge replaced
the wooden one, covered court and barangay health center are in place. These were not seen before the carnage.

Two years have passed but the memory of Mamasapano
encounter remains in the minds of the locals but many of them believed and
convinced the same should not and will never happen again. (Ferdinandh Cabrera)