PNoy’s review of Mamasapano clash report to take time –Palace

It will take some time before President Benigno Aquino III can make final recommendations in connection with the January 25 Mamasapano clash, which left over 60 people dead, including 44 police commandos.

At a press briefing on Friday, deputy presidential spokesperson Usec. Abigail Valte said Aquino will personally go over the Board of Investigation's (BOI) report on the bloody incident.

“Any major report that is submitted to him, he [Aquino] prefers to go through all the documents as well as the annexes before he makes his position known,” Valte told reporters.

“I understand that it would take some time, not naman very long, but it will have to be transmitted to us,” she added.

Valte did not give a specific time frame of the President’s review of the BOI report, saying this will depend on “the volume of the results.”

She further said that Aquino may also tap his legal team to go through the report, before Malacañang makes any public statements about the findings and the contents.

Valte added that it is up to Interior Secretary Mar Roxas if the BOI findings will be made public while Aquino reviews the report.

Earlier in the day, PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit and concurrent BOI chairman Director Benjamin Magalong said the results of the board’s probe on the Mamasapano incident will be submitted to officials on Monday.

The BOI looked into the operational aspects of the operation last January 25 in Mamasapano town in Magauindanao to neutralize Malaysian terrorist Zulkifi bin Hir alias Marwan.

Forty-four police commandos, 18 Moro Islamic Liberation Front fighters and at least five civilians were killed during the operatiom, when a firefight erupted involving government forces, the MILF and its breakaway group, the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters. —KBK, GMA News