Saf 44 action Flick Starts Filming in July & August this year with former GOV. ER EJERCITO in the Lead, Co Stars Olympian & former Congressman Monsour del Rosario

maria urduja osit-li
The News and Story Board
3 min readJun 22, 2021

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(photos with PNP Chief Eleazar and ER Ejercito courtesy of Monsour del Rosario)

MANILA, Philippines —Based on actual events, former Laguna governor ER Ejercito is doing a movie about the fallen 44 Special Action Force (SAF) commandos of the Philippine National Police (PNP).

Ejercito, based on a post on his Facebook page, said the movie would be titled “SAF44 for God and Country.” Enzo Williams is directing the true to life action flick.

Action Stars included in the movie is former Olympian and Congressman Monsour Del Rosario, who sent me the updates of the film.

Former Olympian and Congressman Monsour Del Rosario

“Known as The Mamasapano clash, the unfortunate incident occurred during a police operation, codenamed Oplan Exodus, which took place on Sunday, January 25, 2015, at Tukanalipao, Mamasapano, Maguindanao, by Special Action Force (SAF) of the Philippine National Police (PNP) (allegedly joined by United States Army Special Forces) against the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front(MILF). The operation was intended to capture or kill wanted Malaysian terrorist and bomb-maker Zulkifli Abdhir and other Malaysian terrorists or high-ranking members of the BIFF.

Originally a mission to serve arrest warrants for high-ranking terrorists, it led to the deaths of 44 members of SAF, 18 from MILF and BIFF, and five civilians, and the death of Zulkifli Abdhir confirmed by the FBI and the PNP at 6:30 p.m. of February 4, 2015, due to a matching DNA result. He was one of FBI’s most wanted terrorists. Getulio Napeñas, the relieved SAF commander, estimates about 250 deaths from his assumption that each SAF snipers may have taken down at least 20 opponents from the combined MILF, BIFF, and private militias during the encounter although this was not confirmed and was met with skepticism since aside from the fact that there was no actual body count, there is no acceptable level of evidence to prove his claim.

Napenas’ estimate was also debunked by the MILF and by the local government of Mamasapano.

The mission itself was declared successful since the target was neutralized but the ensuing firefight resulted in a tactical victory of MILF forces against the PNP SAF. The severity of the policemen’s situation prompted the government peace panel to intervene and requested a ceasefire from the MILF.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines also conducted a rescue operation to save the remaining 29 SAF survivors who were encircled by the enemies.

The operation caught the attention of the public for the relatively high number of police officers killed. The clash has been dubbed as the biggest loss of government elite force in history.

The mission was called Oplan Exodus, initially mis attributed as Oplan Wolverine by the local media.

Oplan Wolverine refers to three of the other nine prior operation attempts targeting Marwan; Oplan Wolverine 1, 2 and 3 launched in December 2012, March and May 2014 respectively, by the PNP-SAF. The incident caused the Philippine Congress to halt the passage of the Bangsamoro Basic Law, effectively endangering the peace process between the government and the MILF.” (Source: Wikipedia)

The Federal Bureau of Investigation later took to the identification of Zulkifli’s body.

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maria urduja osit-li
The News and Story Board

PR/Writer/Publicist "Why I prefer Avantegarde Writing...is anyone's guess-it is about Independent/experimental work that people do in Arts and Entertainment."