Palace defers comment on BOI report

MANILA, Philippines—Malacañang on Friday said it would defer commenting on the report of the board of inquiry (BOI) on the botched Mamasapano operation.

“We are unable to comment on the substantive points raised by the board of inquiry’s report until such time that the President (Benigno Aquino III) is able to study its contents,” deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said in a text message to INQUIRER.net.

The statement came a couple of hours after the Philippine National Police (PNP) released on its website the full report of the BOI, which was tasked to investigate Oplan Exodus—an operation that sought to arrest international terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan, and Filipino bomb maker Basit Usman.

READ: The Mamasapano incident full report

While the PNP Special Action Force (SAF) succeeded in neutralizing Marwan, 44 policemen, 18 Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) fighters and five civilians were also killed in the so-called “misencounter.”

Among the findings of the report was that “Oplan Exodus can never be executed effectively because it was defective from the very beginning.”

“Troop management was mismanaged, troops failed to occupy their positions, there was lack of effective communication among the operating troops, command and control was ineffective and foremost, there was no coordination with the AFP forces and peace mechanism entities,” the BOI said.

READ: Aquino, Napeñas violated PNP chain of command–BOI report

It also affirmed earlier reports that Aquino gave the go-signal for the operation and that he allowed former PNP chief Director General Alan Purisima, who was suspended because of corruption charges at that time, to participate in the planning and execution of the mission.