By Ellson Quismorio

An administration lawmaker says it was “uncalled for” for President Rodrigo Duterte to assail senatorial candidate Mar Roxas by bringing up the bloody Mamasapano incident during his recent public speeches.

Moreover, Surigao del Sur 2nd district Rep. Johnny Pimentel argued that the Mamasapano carnage shouldn’t even be an election issue anymore, particularly for the 2019 midterm polls.

“If he is associating it (Mamasapano) with Mar Roxas, I think it’s uncalled for because the Senate investigation has already cleared Roxas of any accountability,” Pimentel said of Duterte.

“I don’t think it should be an election issue because it happened a long time ago,” added Pimentel, a former chairman of the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability.

The outspoken Chief Executive made headlines last week when he told public audiences anecdotes of the Philippine National Police-Special Action Force’s (PNP-SAF) ill-fated anti-terror operation on January 25, 2015 in Mamasapano, Maguindanao.

Local rebels who were unaware of the operation ended up slaughtering 44 of the SAF members, whose primarily mission was to neutralize Zulkifli Bin Hir alias Marwan, a Malaysian terrorist. Bin Hir was said to be responsible for the 2002 Bali bombings, which killed 202 people.

According to Duterte, Roxas — the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) secretary at the time — “wasted” the lives of the 44 police commandos even as he questioned the logic behind using SAF and not the more capable military for the mission.

“Bakit mo ginamit ang SAF na hindi naman sanay sa terrain, sa topography ng lugar?…Tapos ibalik niyo ito (Mar Roxas) sa Senado? (Why did you use the SAF who was unfamiliar with the area’s terrain, topography?…Now you want to bring him back to the Senate?) He wasted 44 lives for nothing,” Duterte said in a speech in Tuguegarao City on April 16.

The Senate probe subsequently found that-then Secretary Roxas was kept in the dark about the operation by then-President Benigno Aquino III, with the latter tapping then-PNP Chief Alan Purisima as his main point-person.

Making the circumstances complicated was the fact that Purisima, Aquino’s close pal, was serving a suspension when it all went down.

Liberal Party (LP) stalwart Roxas ran for the presidency in 2016, but ended up a far second to eventual winner Duterte.

Asked why he thinks Duterte has been linking the botched operation to Roxas as of late, Pimentel said the President is only trying to give his favored senatorial bets a boost ahead of the elections next month.

“President Duterte is just doing his candidates a favor,” reckoned the Mindanao congressman.

Results of a Pulse Asia survey earlier this month bared that Roxas was within striking distance of the “Magic 12” candidates who will earn Senate seats.

READ MORE: Duterte offers to campaign for Mar but he needs to explain Mamasapano first