Some members of the PNP-Special Action Forces (PNP-SAF) involved during the botched Mamasapano operation in Mindanao were reportedly removed from the PNP Awards list according to an informer who revealed the news to one of the country’s leading daily, Inquirer.
According to the Inquirer informer, the names of two SAF officers included in the official memorandum identifying the police personnel to be awarded by President Benigno Aquino III during the 114th police service anniversary on Friday morning were nowhere to be found in the program.
Inquirer reported that the names of slain SAF officer PO2 Romeo Cemprom and Mamasapano survivor Superintendent Raymund Train, who were to receive two highest service medals of the PNP, were allegedly taken out of the roster of awardees.
The newspaper obtained a PNP memorandum on the “Result of the Selection of Awardees, showing that Cempron was to have been posthumously awarded the Medal of Valor while Train was to have received the PNP Distinguished Conduct medal), but in the program released by Malacanang, Cempron and Train’s name were not included.
Another Mamasapano operation officer, the head of the PNP Intelligence Group, Chief Superintendent Fernando Mendez Jr., was also said to be among the awardees but was not included in the program.