Dasmarinas City Representative Elpidio Barzaga Jr. has strongly opposed calls to subject to polygraph tests certain resource persons in the ongoing House inquiry into the clash that killed 44 Special Action Force (SAF) commandos last Jan. 25 in Mamasapano, Maguindanao.
Barzaga, the vice president for external affairs of the National Unity Party (NUP), said such a move would set a bad precedent and could scare off future resource persons invited by the House of Representatives to its hearings.
“Based on our experience, in the course of our investigation, there are always conflicting testimonies. The remedy to undergo polygraph tests would be a violation of their constitutional rights,” Barzaga said.
The lawmaker was referring to a proposal by ACT-CIS Partylist Representative Samuel Pagdilao to subject to lie detector tests PNP Supt. Michael John Mangahis of the SAF and Army Col. Gener Del Rosario, the commander of the military’s 1st Mechanized Brigade, after they gave conflicting testimonies during the House inquiry into the Mamasapano clash.
Mangahis disputed Del Rosario’s claim that the SAF did not give the Army the exact locations of the commandos at the height of their gunbattle with Moro rebels. An emotional Mangahis told Del Rosario during the hearing: “Man up, sir, man up.”
The SAF was on a mission to arrest Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir, alias “Marwan” and Filipino Basit Usman last January 25, 2015. Marwan was killed during the operation.
Forty-four members of the SAF, the elite force of the Philippine National Police (PNP), were attacked and brutally killed by members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and its supposed splinter group, the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) during the operation. The SAF claimed that the carnage could have been avoided had the military sent the necessary reinforcements on time to rescue the beleaguered elite troopers.