WATCH: Flowers not only for the SAF 44 but the Mamasapano 66

What's known as the Mamasapano massacre was one of the darkest moments in the Bangsamoro peace process

The mere mention of “Mamasapano” triggers bitter debate. Whose fault was it that 44 of the country’s elite police commandos were killed in what should have been a surgical capture of a high-value suspect?

Local journalists who have closely covered the incident and its aftermath say most accounts point to the lack of coordination among government forces, and with the then-rebel Moro Islamic Liberation Front’s (MILF) army, that resulted in the deaths of the SAF 44 (“SAF” stands for “Special Action Force”, the national police’s elite unit) on the morning of January 25, 2015.

On the morning of January 25, 2025 — exactly a decade since the tragedy — a group of journalists led by MindaNews laid a wreath of flowers and said a prayer for the Mamasapano 66: the SAF 44, the 17 MILF fighters, and five civilians who were killed in the clash.

The SAF 44 certainly were martyrs of the country’s cause, said the local journalists, but the slain MILF fighters believed they were defending their land from what they assumed to have been an attack because of the failure in coordination. The five civilians? They were merely at the wrong place, at the wrong time.

All 66 souls deserve respect and remembrance as the “Mamasapano 66”. Flowers for the departed. – Rappler.com

This coverage was made possible by the Mindanao Institute of Journalism and Media Impact Philippines.