House tackles SAF’s communication woes

IF the Special Action Force had prepared all logistical requirements the commandos will use in the Mamasapano operation, why did some of the slain 44 policemen asked for pre-paid cell phone loads from their families at the height of a bloody gunfight?

Batangas Representative Raneo Abu posed this question to relieved SAF commander Police Director Getulio Napeñas during the resumption of the House of Representatives’ inquiry into the Mamasapano debacle on Tuesday.

But Napeñas said he has not heard any reports that some of the slain commanders from the 55th Special Action Company – the SAF unit decimated in the encounter with Moro armed groups on January 25 – had asked for cell phone loads.

In an earlier Inquirer report, PO3 Ricky Nacino, a 55th SAC member, asked for a P100 cell phone load from his wife so he could call his family in the midst of the heavy gun battle. After telling his family that he might not come home soon, Nacino’s family never heard from him.

Nacino was one of the 36 members of the 55th SAC who died in the Mamasapano operation or the “Oplan Exodus” against international terrorist Zulkifli Bin Hir or “Marwan,” and his henchmen Abdul Basit Usman and Amin Baco.

The lawmaker questioned Napeñas for allowing his men on the ground to rely solely on their individual mobile phones instead of their issued satellite phones and Harris portable radios.

“Hindi niyo talaga ni-require ipagamit yon (cell phone) dahil may mga report na may mga taga-55th na humihingi pa ng [load] para lang makatawag?” Abu said.

The relieved SAF commander then replied: “Ico-confirm ko po kung may nanghingi ng load pero hindi ko pa po naririnig ‘yan.”

READ: SAF man’s dying wish: P100 load

Napeñas said the SAF troopers opted to use their mobile phones to communicate with their superiors at the tactical command post in Shariff Aguak because their cellphones were functioning well until the next morning.

But according to him, it is written in the operation plan that the troopers will use Harris radios, Motorola police radios, VHF radios, satellite phones and their individual cellphones.

“Para sa operation na ito, naihanda namin lahat ng logistical requirements and finances. We’ve set up a communication system as early as December 23, 2014 and it took us a week to set up three communication systems,” he explained.

But he said the 84th SAC, the assaulting team that killed Marwan in his hut, were not able to use their radios after these got wet when they crossed five rivers.

“‘Yung Harris radio gamit na gamit, except sa 84th SAC dahil five times silang tumawid ng ilog. Pero sa 55th SAC gamit na gamit,” Napeñas said. AC