News Analysis: Alleged U.S. role in anti-terror operation affecting Philippine-U.S. security cooperation

The alleged involvement of the United States in one of the bloodiest anti-terror operations in the Philippines, which is investigated by the Philippine Senate, could seriously affect security cooperation agreements between Washington and Manila.

According to Senator Grace Poe, chairman of the Senate committee on public order and dangerous drugs, the committee may invite officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and the U.S. embassy to shed light on the role that the U.S. authorities played in what is called the Mamasapano incident.

A daring early dawn raid on Jan. 25 by the elite special action force (SAF) of the Philippine National Police in a terrorist hideout in the town of Mamasapano, Maguindanao province, resulted in the killing of 44 SAF commandoes by guerrillas of the secessionist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

The U.S. involvement in Operation Exodus, the code-name for the Mamasapano raid, was described in detail by sacked SAF commander Director Getulio Napenas during a close-door hearing at the Senate.

Napenas reportedly told the senators that a U.S. surveillance plane tracked Malaysian bomb expert Zulkifli bin Hir, also known as Marwan, and Basit Usman, his Filipino accomplice, to their hideout in Mamasapano, Maguindanao. Marwan was killed but Usman was able to escape and is still on the lam.

Napenas has also told the Senate that his troops handed over the severed index finger of Marwan to agents of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for DNA testing. The presence of FBI agents in Mindanao has also been questioned.

The Philippine Constitution prohibits foreign troops from engaging in combat operations within the country.

Both the DFA and the U.S. Embassy have denied the participation of any U.S. soldier in the Mamasapano encounter.

In a statement, U.S. embassy spokesman Kurt Hoyer said the U.S. only responded to the request of Philippine authorities for assistance in the evacuation of dead and wounded after the firefight in Maguindanao.

Marwan was a member of Jemaah Islamiyah, a transnational terrorist organization with cells in Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines. JI, which has direct links to al-Qaida, was responsible for the Bali bombing in 2002 that killed more than 200 Australian tourists. Marwan was among the primary suspects in the Bali bombing.

The ongoing congressional investigation into the Mamasapano incident is not aimed at looking into the criminal liability of those involved either in the Philippine military or civilian authorities.

The goal of congressional inquiries is to guide the lawmakers in crafting laws and policies that would safeguard the country's national sovereignty.

Analysts here said if the congressional probe could unravel the extent of U.S. interference in the internal affairs of the Philippines, legislative measures could be adopted to review, if not repeal, existing security cooperation agreements between Manila and Washington.

In fact, as a result of the alleged killing by Joseph Scott Pemberton, a U.S. marine officer, of Filipino transgender Jennifer Laude in Olongapo City in October last year, Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago has called for the scrapping of the PH-U.S. Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA).

The VFA, signed by the two countries on May 10, 1998, has been used as the legal basis for the stay of American servicemen in the country either to participate in the annual joint Philippine- American military exercises or just for rest and recreation purposes as in the case of Pemberton.

Santiago and other critics have said the VFA has given special rights and privileges to American forces while in the Philippines.

The U.S. involvement in the Mamasapano incident could also impact on the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA), which was signed on April 28, 2014 during the official visit to Manila of U.S. President Barack Obama.

Under EDCA, U.S. forces are given unlimited and free access to Philippine military facilities, an arrangement that has been questioned by militant groups as another infringement on Philippine sovereignty.

Several petitions have been filed against EDCA at the Philippine Supreme Court. The high court is still to issue its final ruling as to the constitutionally of EDCA.

Analysts said the U.S. involvement in the Mamasapano incident could convince the Supreme Court to declare EDCA as illegal and unconstitutional. Endi