Purisima insists he didn’t break chain of command

MANILA, Philippines—Suspended Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Alan Purisima insisted that his suspension did not mean he was prohibited from giving advice on the Mamasapano operation.

During the House of Representatives’ probe on Wednesday, Purisima, who had resigned over allegations that he had called the shots in the botched operation, said he also did not break the chain of command when he kept in the dark Interior Secretary Manuel “Mar” Roxas II and other military and police officials on the operation.

Resigned PNP chief Alan Purisima faces questions from senators during Day 2 of the Senate hearing on the Mamasapano incident. RAFFY LERMA

“To paraphrase military parlance, the DILG (Department of Interior and Local Government) and DILG Secretary [are] not part of the PNP command line although the DILG chair is ex-officio chair of Napolcom,” he said.

Purisima said the PNP command line was not broken at any time during the operation because the force commander continued to exercise the delegating function of the chief of PNP.

“Although my preventive suspension prevented me from carrying out administrative functions, it did not prevent me from providing inputs, advice to the force commander,” he said.

Allegations were raised that President Benigno Aquino III had authorized Purisima to call the shots in the operation to arrest two wanted terrorists.

Sacked Special Action Force chief Getulio Napeñas said Purisima gave the order to keep the operation secret. The resigned police chief meanwhile said he only gave advice and not orders on the botched operation.

Napeñas also said he could not be accused of breaking the chain of command when he reported to Purisima, despite the latter’s suspension, instead of to his immediate superior PNP officer in charge Leonardo Espina.

“I could not be accused of breaking the chain of command, even Justice Secretary (Leila) De Lima said chain of command does not exist in civilian organization like the PNP,” Napeñas said.

Napeñas had said Aquino did not give the go-signal on the operation, but he didn’t give a no-go signal either. He also said he had met with the President to give updates on the operation just on January before the carnage.

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