Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE
Twenty senior military officials got the nod of a panel of the powerful Commission on Appointments (CA) on Wednesday but not without Senate Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile’s grilling about the Mamasapano incident.
The CA’s committee on national defense unanimously recommended for confirmation in the plenary the ad interim re-appointments and appointments of the 20 seniors after some of them went through Enrile’s interrogation on what they would have done if they were the ones in charge during the Mamasapano incident on January 25, 2015.
It was Enrile who sought the reopening of the Senate probe on the incident last week.
READ: No new evidence but Enrile satisfied with reopened Mamasapano probe
At the start of the hearing of the committee, the senator warned the military officials that he would invoke Section 20 of the rules to block their confirmation if they would not be truthful with their answers.
“I must warn you gentlemen, I’m going to invoke Section 20 if you’re not truthful here. This is not a joking matter. You’re going to be confirmed for higher ranks and higher responsibility and higher degree of common sense in the performance of duty,” he said.
“So it’s about time that we’ll make the system of confirmation of people, who enter service in the government to be more strict instead of being laughable so that discipline and dedication [are] infused in everyone of us,” Enrile added.
The senator then asked at least three officers — Lieutenant Generals Romeo Tanalgo, Glorioso Miranda, and Mayoralgo Dela Cruz — two similar questions: First, what would you have done if you were the chief of staff during that fateful day of January 25, 2015 when the 44 SAF troopers were killed during a police operation in Mamasapano, Maguindanao and whether or not they would inform their command in chief.
READ: Enrile blames President for SAF 44 massacre
“If you were Chief of Staff on January 25, 2015…and you learned about what was going in Mamasapano, Maguindanao where men in uniform although they were invested police power but nonetheless members of the security force of the Republic and they were beleaguered, what would you have done?” Enrile asked.
“Be careful with your answer because as I told you, I warned you, I will invoke Section 20,” he added.
Responding to the senator’s question, Tanalgo said: “I’d be directing our forces, the unit on the ground to provide the necessary assistance, to reinforce, to try to extricate the beleaguered troops if we’re talking of the Mamasapano incident.”
“Would you have as a matter of duty informed your commander in chief?” Enrile asked again, to which Tanalgo answered yes.
For Miranda, the senator asked what the official would have done if he were the vice chief of staff of the Western Mindanao Command if he learned about the plight of the 44 SAF men.
Miranda said he would direct his ground commander to support and save the lives of their comrades “in order to make the mission more successful.”
This was how Dela Cruz answered the same questions:
“Your honors, I will direct my subordinate commander to extend all the necessary assistance to help our comrades in uniform sir and I’ll also inform my chief of staff as well as the Secretary of National Defense and the commander in chief, Sir,” he said. IDL