House digs up telling details

Secret arrangement

Army Brig. Gen. Carlito Galvez Jr. told lawmakers about a secret arrangement called “mushroom diplomacy” between the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the MILF.

Galvez, head of the government’s Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities, said the arrangement was for tracking high-value terrorists that would seek refuge in MILF-controlled territory.

This arrangement had been in place even before the Mamasapano encounter, according to Galvez.

He said it was an open secret that members of the Abu Sayyaf Group and Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, and terrorists like Marwan had sought refuge in the MILF areas where they could be anonymous.

“Among the MILF, if they knew one of their relatives had relayed information to us [about a high-value target], it would not look good. That is why we have this secret arrangement,” Galvez said.

Marwan’s finger

Also at the hearing, the sacked commander of the SAF, Director Getulio Napeñas, said Marwan’s finger and pictures of his body were first taken to the SAF tactical post.

“After two days, it was turned over to the [FBI]. We were concerned the finger might begin to rot,” Napeñas said.

Upon further questioning, Napeñas admitted that he had not seen the return document of the warrants that served as legal basis to arrest Marwan and the other target, Usman, who escaped.

This implied that the FBI got hold of evidence of Marwan’s death ahead of the Philippine courts, which had issued the warrants for his arrest.

Not Google maps

Belying the military’s claim that the SAF used Google maps in asking for reinforcements from the Army for its trapped and outnumbered commandos, Napeñas said the SAF used a map provided by US counterparts.

He disputed the claim of Col. Gener del Rosario, 1st Mechanized Brigade commander, that the SAF officials had used a Google map.

Unfurling the US-provided map, Napeñas said: “This is not a Google map. This is our own map with grid references and enhanced to the nearest one meter, and which we got two weeks before the operation” was implemented.

Asked by Gabriela party-list Rep. Luz Ilagan where the map was sourced from, he said: “From our US counterpart.”