Enrile out to prove Aquino’s ‘direct’ involvement in Mamasapano

A tarpauline hangs at the People Power Monument in Edsa, Quezon City, January 18, 2016, in memory of 44 police Special Action Force (SAF) commandos killed by Muslim rebels in Mamasapano, Maguindanao last Jan. 25, 2015. Forty four medium size flags were installed at the monument.  NINO JESUS ORBETA

Senate Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile said he has evidence to prove that President Benigno Aquino III was “actively” and “directly” involved in the planning and preparation of the Mamasapano incident and that “he did not do anything at all to save” the elite policemen who perished from it.

Enrile made this disclosure when he took the floor on Monday to justify the reopening of the Mamasapano probe in the Senate.

“So that there will be no more questions about whether we should reopen the Mamasapano hearing or not, I would like to make it of record that I have evidence: one, that the President of the Philippines, Benigno S. Aquino III, actively and directly involved himself in the planning and preparation for Oplan Exodus,” he said.

The Oplan Exodus the senator was referring to was the police operation in Mamasapano, Maguindanao last January 25, 2015 that left 44 Special Action Force (SAF) men and several other civilians dead.

“Second, that on the day actual operation, he (Aquino) was monitoring the operation while he was in his plane going to Zamboanga City,” Enrile said.

“Third, that while the operation was going on, and the SAF units were being slaughtered, he did not do anything at all,” he added.

Enrile, who initiated the reopening of the Senate probe, said he would also show that some Cabinet members who earlier appeared in the previous hearings of the Senate did not disclose the fact “properly and truthfully.”

“From my study of evidence presented in the committee, Mr. President, I will show that some members of the Cabinet who appeared in these hearings did not disclose the true facts even though they knew it, and yet they testified under oath and they did not disclose the facts properly and truthfully,” the senator added.

Senator Grace Poe, the lead investigator in the Senate as chair of the committee on public order, has scheduled the reopening of the investigation on January 27. JE