Sacked Special Action Force Director Getulio Napenas (standing, left). AP FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines–Sacked Special Action Force (SAF) Director Getulio Napeñas is ready to tell all before the fact-finding investigation panel of the Office of the Ombudsman even if it involves President Benigno Aquino III in the Mamasapano debacle, his lawyer said Thursday.
Atty. Vitaliano Aguirre in a phone interview said his client went to the Ombudsman Wednesday for a clarificatory hearing, part of the fact-finding probe of the antigraft unit.
Aguirre said Napeñas rebutted the findings of the Philippine National Police’s board of inquiry (BOI) report pinning him as breaking the chain of command when he failed to coordinate early on to the military about the confidential antiterror raid.
The supposed failure to coordinate, and instead the practice of coordinating on a “time on target” concept or coordinating just when the operation was launched, resulted in the delay in reinforcements that caused heavy casualties on the SAF commandos. At least 44 SAF commandos, 18 Moro fighters and five civilians were killed in the 12-hour gun battle.
Napeñas clarified to the Ombudsman that the President gave the go-signal in the operation by not making a comment on the time on target operation, Aguirre said.
Napeñas has claimed to interpret Aquino’s silence to the time on target concept during their meetings as a go signal.
The lawyer noted the rules of evidence under which the silence of a person can be taken as an “admission by silence.”
“When it calls for the President na sumagot siya at hindi niya ginawa ‘yun, ang dating, aprubado ng Pangulo ‘yun. There is an implied acceptance of the time on target coordination by the President,” Aguirre said.
The botched Jan. 25 operation was supposed to take down three high-profile terrorists in Mamasapano town, Maguindnao when the SAF commandos were fired upon by fighters of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and its breakaway group Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters.
Asked if Napeñas is pinning Aquino in the Ombudsman probe, Aguirre said “there is no intention.”
“Hindi naman niya sinusumbong. What he did is just tell the truth and state the facts,” Aguirre said.
He added that Napeñas is careful in dragging his superiors—in this case resigned police chief Alan Purisima and Aquino as commander-in-chief—in the Ombudsman probe for the persons possibly involved in dereliction of duty.
“Ang gusto lang naman niya magkaroon ng definition ang accountability ng bawat isang tao. Inadmit naman niya ang responsibility,” Aguirre said.
“Napeñas is sad na nangyayari ito sa kanya, considering that it’s the twilight of his public service. Hindi sila sanay bickering with their higher-ups. Subordinates lang sila. He doesn’t (want) to make it appear that he’s quarreling with the President,” he added.
Purisima, a close friend of the President, was also cited in the police report as bypassing the chain of command and usurping authority when he supposedly told Napeñas not to tell acting police chief Leonardo Espina and Interior Secretary Manuel “Mar” Roxas II about the operation.
Aquino has washed his hands from accountability and instead put the blame on Napeñas, whom he criticized of disobeying his orders of coordinating with Espina.
Napeñas also rebutted before the Ombudsman the police findings that the plan was not prepared
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