Poe: No need for another hearing

Senator Grace Poe. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/RAFFY LERMA

MANILA, Philippines–Sen. Grace Poe on Tuesday said the Senate report on the Mamasapano massacre would address the issue of command responsibility even without the video that surfaced last week on a briefing given by the Special Action Force (SAF) commander to top security officials a day after the Jan. 25 slaughter of 44 elite police troopers.

Poe, chair of the committee on public order that conducted the inquiry on the bloodbath in Maguindanao province, told reporters she did not see any reason to call another hearing to discuss the 11-minute video of the briefing given by Director Getulio Napeñas on Jan. 26 copies of which fell into media hands and shown on TV news programs.

“I think the video raises the concern of who has the command responsibility, time on target, who had the authority to command the operations, these are the things that we will already address. Whether or not the video came out, I think we have enough information to be able to address it,” Poe said.

She said other burning questions to be answered dealt with when the President was informed about the operation and how he reacted to it.

Among those present in the Jan. 26 briefing on video were Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin, and Deputy Director General Leonardo Espina, the officer in charge of the Philippine National Police.

In the briefing, Napeñas told the officials that he only coordinated with then suspended PNP Director General Alan Purisima for the Mamasapano operation.

He also said he and the PNP Intelligence Group head, Chief Supt. Fernando Mendez, had briefed the President about the plan. When asked about the President’s guidance, Napeñas said it was “to study the initial oplan.”

Roxas was also heard asking Napeñas whether there was a guidance that the operation be kept from the military or the PNP hierarchy or to keep the matter to themselves.

Napeñas said that when he was briefing the President, he recommended that the military be informed of the operation “time on target.”

The operation ended in a bloodbath after SAF troopers clashed with members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters. In addition to the slain commandos, 18 MILF members, and five civilians also were killed.

Poe said she would determine if the video would need to play a role or to be tackled in her committee report, but that she did not see that it would result in a big change in the Senate’s findings.

“It could be mentioned. It would not change the evidence that we had gathered,” she added.

She also said the video was the first time that there was an actual confirmation that the Mamasapano operation was relayed to Roxas and Espina after the fact.

“If ever, it confirms that they knew nothing of the operation from the start,” she said.

Poe also said that as far as she was concerned, the Senate’s evidence was complete because it also had executive sessions with key resource persons where a lot of issues were discussed.

“So for me, I think, we have pretty much extensive information that at this point we don’t think that we need another public hearing,” she said.

Napeñas and Purisima have both taken responsibility for the botched operation. Napeñas has been relieved as SAF commander; Purisima, who was suspended in December last year on corruption charges, has resigned as PNP chief.

Poe met with religious leaders on Tuesday led by Sister Mary John Mananzan of the Association of Major Religious Superiors who wanted to seek clarification on certain matters concerning the Senate’s hearings on the Mamasapano incident.

Mananzan said that in particular, she and her colleagues wanted to know how the video would figure in the Senate report and whether the Senate investigation was already closed.

“It [the video] could show what is the accountability. Our group is for truth and accountability, so we want to know what really happened, who should be accountable, so that it could be clear to the people,” Mananzan told reporters at the Senate.