Aquino’s fault: He gave Purisima shot at redemption

Former President Benigno Aquino III’s loyalty to a friend may have done him in, according to security experts.

Aquino, in giving then Philippine National Police Director General Alan Purisima a chance to redeem himself while suspended on graft charges, led to his indictment in the 2015 Mamasapano debacle, two analysts said on Monday.

Purisima allegedly directed the Special Action Force (SAF) operation, supervised on the ground by then SAF Director Getulio Napeñas, against Malaysian bomb maker Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan.

Marwan was killed, but the commandos paid dearly, losing 44 men.

Ticket back

“The success against Marwan would have been Purisima’s ticket back into the game after suspension. It was [Aquino’s] failure of judgment that he put himself in that position,” security analyst Ashley Acedillo told the Inquirer.

“From a nonlegal perspective, I think [Aquino’s] problem was the communication with Purisima — how, despite suspension, the latter was able to have some degree of control or supervision of the SAF operation,” said Acedillo, a former Philippine Air Force pilot.

“As to the carnage, it was squarely on Napeñas who refused to coordinate and even blinded those who should have known [about the operation],” Acedillo said.

Purisima was serving an Ombudsman suspension on a graft case when Aquino met with him and Napeñas on Jan. 19, 2015, at Bahay Pangarap in Malacañang to discuss the operation, which was mounted six days later.

University of the Philippines professor Chester Cabalza said it was unfortunate that the “context of Aquino’s role in the planning of the counterterrorism operation” had been drowned in all the legal talk on accountability.

Misinformation

For Cabalza, Aquino had taken all the blame “when in fact, it was his people who bungled the operation.”

“Look at the context as well. There was a situation taking place. The problem, too, was he did not know exactly what was happening as well,” Cabalza said, adding that there was “misinformation” even to the President himself.

Aquino, the Commander in Chief at the time, only took part in the planning of an operation “where no one knew yet if it would fail or succeed,” Cabalza said.

“It failed in terms of the deaths of the SAF, which was why it became controversial. But if it succeeded, it would have been a different story,” Cabalza said.

But like Acedillo, Cabalza said it was apparent that Purisima “wanted to redeem himself” through the Marwan operation.

“That is the missing link,” Cabalza said.

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