MANILA, Philippines–Malacañang on Sunday urged former President Fidel V. Ramos and other critics to wait for the results of the police investigation before blaming President Aquino for the deaths of 44 police commandos in a clash with Moro rebels in Mamasapano town, Maguindanao province, on Jan. 25.
Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma also assured the public that the police and the military are on full alert amid reports of efforts by some sectors to unseat President Aquino over the Mamasapano debacle.
“We respect the opinion and view of former President Ramos as a senior statesman of our country. It is better that we wait for the results of the ongoing investigation of the Philippine National Police board of inquiry and other agencies doing their own search for the truth … like the Senate and the House of Representatives to determine the full and complete narrative about what happened in Mamasapano,” Coloma told reporters.
Ramos, speaking at ceremonies in Intramuros commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Manila on Saturday, said Director Getulio Napeñas, the sacked commander of the PNP Special Action Force (SAF) who had taken full responsibility for the debacle, should stop blaming himself and instead throw the “real blame” at higher officials.
“I said it before, there are many chains of command—military, police, civilian, nongovernment organization, the media. The military [chain of command] is a bit different from the PNP chain of command, but both have one characteristic—the President is the Commander in Chief,” Ramos said.
Two former SAF officials also said that as Commander in Chief, President Aquino should take full responsibility for the disastrous ending of the SAF operation to take down international terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir, alias “Marwan,” and his Filipino deputy, Basit Usman.
They said Aquino could have saved many of the 44 SAF commandos had he ordered the military to launch a mission to rescue the policemen, who had been pinned down in a cornfield by guerrillas from the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
Aquino not informed?
Aquino was in Zamboanga City on Jan. 25 supposedly visiting the victims of a car bomb explosion there on Jan. 23. He could have learned about the fighting in Mamasapano, which began early that morning, but Interior Secretary Mar Roxas and Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin, both of whom were with him in Zamboanga, did not inform him about it.
Speaking at a Senate inquiry into the Mamasapano clash on Thursday, Roxas and Gazmin said they received reports of the fighting in the morning of Jan. 25, but did not tell Aquino about it because clashes were daily occurrences in Maguindanao and they did not have a complete picture of what was going on in Mamasapano.
Coloma sounded irritated when asked whether Malacañang would reprimand officials who failed to inform the President about the fighting in Mamasapano.
“This question is based on conclusion on what we have heard from statements to testimonies from the hearings in the Senate and the House of Representatives. In our view, it is not proper to immediately accept this conclusion while the report of investigating bodies has not yet come out. It is better and proper to wait for the full result of these probes,” Coloma said.
The SAF commandos killed Marwan during the operation but got into gun battles with BIFF and MILF guerrillas as they withdrew from Mamasapano.
Forty-four commandos, 18 MILF guerrillas and five civilians were killed in the 12-hour gun battle.
Usman was wounded, but managed to get away.
President Aquino has come under heavy criticism for not accepting responsibility for the SAF disaster.
Take full responsibility
Two former SAF officials, who asked the Inquirer to withhold their identities for fear of reprisal from their superiors in the PNP, said Aquino, being the Commander in Chief, should tell what he knew and take full responsibility for the deaths of the 44 police commandos.
The first officer, who served as a tactical officer in the SAF for four years, said Aquino could have minimized the SAF casualties had he directly ordered the military to step in and rescue the beleaguered policemen.
He noted that the President admitted during a brief speech to SAF members on Jan. 30 that he knew about the fighting in Mamasapano.
“I was told of the results of the [police operation] to arrest Marwan in the morning. While the investigation of the Zamboanga bombing was being conducted, the report [about the Mamasapano incident] was coming in,” Aquino told the SAF troopers after condoling with the families of the slain policemen at SAF headquarters in Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City.
“What did he do after being told about the incident? Did he instruct the military to immediately carry out a rescue mission? For me, that’s the most important question that the President should answer,” said the police officer, who now occupies a key post in the 150,000-strong police force.
“I believe in the President’s advocacy of ‘tuwid na daan” (straight path). This is the most opportune time for him to prove to the Filipino nation that he can still be trusted and that he will not lie to us,” he said.
An official video of the President’s talk with the SAF troopers has been posted on YouTube by the Presidential Communications Operations Office.
Shielding President
The police officer urged the senators and representatives looking into the Mamasapano clash to watch the video.
“That video is very revealing because the President himself admitted knowing that a gun battle was [taking place] between the SAF and the [Moro rebels] in Mamasapano and yet his senior security officials claimed they did not tell the President about it,” he said.
“It’s very obvious that they were lying through their teeth, possibly because they wanted to protect President Aquino. But the people, especially the families of the [slain] SAF officers, deserve to know the truth,” he said.
The second police officer, who spent the early years of his career in the SAF, said the President should explain why he agreed to let Director General Alan Purisima, the suspended PNP chief, take control of the mission to arrest Marwan and Usman.
Jan. 9 briefing
He said the President should also make public the discussion he had with Purisima, Napeñas and Senior Supt. Fernando Mendez, head of the PNP Intelligence Group, during their meeting on the SAF mission in Bahay Pangarap, his residence at the Malacañang compound, on Jan. 9.
Aquino must also explain why he agreed to Purisima’s “advice” that Napeñas not inform Roxas and the PNP officer in charge, Deputy Director General Leonardo Espina, about the operation.
“Oplan Exodus was finalized during that meeting in Bahay Pangarap. That only means the President was fully aware of the operation,” the police officer said.
“Instead of trying to escape accountability, President Aquino should man up and accept the fact that he failed to do what’s necessary to save the lives of the SAF troopers,” he said.
“With just one call to the military, President Aquino could have saved the lives of many of those 44 brave men,” he said.
Originally posted: 9:54 PM | Sunday, February 15th, 2015