Personalities involved in the Mamasapano encounter and its aftermath

It has been a year since the bloody incident occurred in Barangay Tukanalipao in Mamasapano town in Maguindanao. The incident left 44 members of the Special Action Force, an elite unit of the Philippine National Police, 18 members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and five civilians dead.

During several public hearings, press conferences and speeches following the incident, a few personalities became household names to the millions of Filipinos eager to know what really transpired during that fateful encounter between the SAF troopers and the MILF rebels.

The police's elite Special Action Force, meanwhile, gained nationwide popularity and admiration.

Its 44 members who perished in the Mamasapano encounter were mostly family men with very young children. Others were young yet skilled police officers (one an exemplary sniper) with promising careers ahead of them.

Exactly a year since the gruesome incident, two of the members of the SAF 44, Senior Inspector Gednat Tabdi and Police Officer 2 Romeo Cempron were posthumously awarded medals of valor, the highest form of award for the uniformed service.

The remaining 42 members of the SAF 44 were awarded with the Medalya ang Kabayanihan or the Distinguished Conduct Medal.

Families of the SAF 44 have said that aside from the awards and financial aid, what they really want is justice for the deaths of the fallen commandos.

GMA News Online came up with a list of personalities, the roles they played during or after the Mamasapano encounter, and where they are now.

—graphics by Jannielyn Ann Bigtas/ALG, GMA News