Republic of the Philippines

Northeastern Mindanao State University

Tagbina, Surigao del Sur
www.nemsu-tagbina.edu.ph
Name: Eguiab, Deither Lhoyd R. Instructor: Victoria Cheska Batistis
Year & Section: 1st Year – BSED 1A

CRITIQUE ANALYSIS OF THE MOVIE

MAMASAPANO

I. INTRODUCTION

The title of the movie is Mamasapano: Now It Can Be Told and it was
released on December 25, 2022, and it was directed by Lester Dimaranan and the
genre of this movie is Action/Thriller and it explores the tragic event that occurred on
January 25, 2015, resulted the deaths of the 44 Elite Commandos of Special Action
Force (SAF) members one of the elite unit of PNP, and 7 civilian during the
encounter of Moro Islamic Liberation Front(MILF) and Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom
Fighters(BIFF). The MILF and BIFF had also total casualties of 18 deaths of its
members. This movie aims to show what happen during more than 10 hours of
clashing in Mamasapano. This movie was published to honor brave heroes who
protect our country.
The cast of the movie is Paolo Gumabao as Raymond Train, Aljur Abrenica as
Lt. Franco, Gerald Santos as Sgt. Lalan, Edu Manzano as Lt. Gen. Benjamin
Magalong, Allan Paule as Gen. Getulio Napeñas, Rez Cortez as Gen. Alan Purisima
and etc.
The movie is all about the braveness of the 44 heroes who sacrificed their
lives for their country and also the movie tells about the how the commanders and
leaders of the PNP neglect their own troops and because of the selfishness of Gen.
Pulisima and Gen. Napeñas did not tell the Philippine Army (PA) about their
operation.

II. BODY

The movie Mamasapano explore the tragic event that occur on January 15,
2015, it was a battle of the 84th Special Action Company (Seaborne), 55th Special
Action Company and MILF and BIFF leading to more than forty-four casualties from
the Special Action Force (SAF) and 18 casualties from MILF and BIFF and 7
Civilians. This mission was to capture the Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli Abdhir, also
known as Marwan and Abdul Basir Usman who is hiding in that area.
When the mission was successful around 3-4 am the troops did not aware
that the enemy already encircled them, unexpectedly when the sun was about to
rise, they were surprised that the MILF and BIFF had already been hiding around
 Republic of the Philippines
Northeastern Mindanao State University
Tagbina, Surigao del Sur
www.nemsu-tagbina.edu.ph
them. In the middle of the encounter with the enemy the miscommunications, and
errors of the troops and the delayed reinforcement of the PNP and the PA led to
heavy loss of the SAF.
After the encounter the with the terrorist the higher leaders of PNP started to
question the Generals who planned the operation and also how Gen. Pulisima
involved in the operation if he was suspended at that time, it anger the senators and
the families of the troops because of the negligence of the Generals.

III. CONCLUSION
If this was truly based on a true story, it is showing how poor the positioning of the
SAF, I do not think they we are sticking together. SAF is a special action force that is well-
trained, right? Why are they so scared of this movie? The movie showed how untrained the
troopers were. And, how poor of the details that was shown in the movie. If the leaders were
aware of the risk sending an SAF in the extraction of two high valued terrorist the casualties
of the operation will be small, but they didn’t care after all they just want to be praised if the
mission was successful, yes, the mission was successful, but it cost the lives of the 44 SAF
troopers.