Aquino still fond of pal Purisima

President Benigno S. Aquino III and resigned Philippine National Police (PNP) Director General Alan Purisima. Malacañang Photo Bureau (FILE)

Nearly four months after the Mamasapano massacre, President Aquino continues to defend his friend, former national police chief Alan Purisima, refusing to believe the latter had lied to him during the top secret operation that resulted in the death of 44 Special Action Force commandos, 17 Moro rebels and at least three civilians.

By the President’s own admission, however, the information about military reinforcements relayed to him by Purisima during the Jan. 25 operation had given him the impression that help for the police commandos was on the way.

Seemingly off the hook for what is considered the worst crisis of his term, Aquino did not say if he should share in the blame for the massacre for having involved Purisima, then under suspension by the Ombudsman over a corruption case, in the operation to arrest 2 high-profile terrorists, Malaysian bomb maker Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan, and his Filipino protege Basit Usman.

Marwan was killed in the operation and Usman was shot dead by the MILF two weeks ago.

“So the information that reached me was wrong, but did he lie (to me)? Saying that he lied might be too strong. But perhaps there was wishful thinking on his part,” Aquino said in Filipino in a radio interview Wednesday, the transcript of which was released by Malacañang yesterday.

In a meeting at the Palace in February, the President was quoted as telling a group of congressmen that Purisima had lied to him about the situation in Mamasapano where the SAF commandos came under heavy fire from Moro Islamic Liberation Front fighters and other armed groups.

Although Purisima was under suspension, Aquino said he still involved him in the operation as a “subject matter expert.”

“I didn’t see anything wrong with that because that had been the normal flow (of things) for quite a number of years. Since 2012, if I’m not mistaken, Alan Purisima had been involved in the hunt for high-value targets,” the President said.

On the day of the operation, Aquino was apparently getting his information about its progress from Purisima, who was getting updates and requests for reinforcements from SAF Director Getulio Napeñas, the ground commander.

But while he refused to blame Purisima, Aquino assailed Napeñas, saying that as ground commander he should have had “situational awareness.”