PRESIDENT Benigno Aquino III is ultimately responsible for the Mamasapano debacle in which 44 police commandos were killed by Muslim rebels, after he allowed his close friend, suspended police chief Alan Purisima, to participate in the covert operation, Senator Grace Poe said Tuesday.
In a press briefing, Poe, who chairs the Senate public order committee that investigated the Mamasapano incident, said the President must bear the responsibility for failing to prevent the unlawful exercise of official functions by Purisima, who at the time of the operation was suspended on allegations of corruption. “The President relied on and directly coordinated with the suspended PNP [Philippine National Police] chief, as it was shown that he continued to communicate with the latter on Oplan Exodus, based on testimony and evidence presented in the public hearings,” said Poe in her draft report on the Mamasapano incident. Poe said the draft report was the result of five public hearings, five executive sessions, and 73 hours of full discussion attended by 37 resource persons, and more than 4,300 documents. The draft report had yet to be signed by the other committee members. She said her committee, along with the committees on peace, unification and reconciliation and finance were able to ferret out answers to burning questions on the Mamasapano incident and Operation Exodus.
findings of the Senate committee on public order, which she
heads, on the Mamasapano encounter that led to the death
of 44 police commandos. She said President Benigno Aquino
III was responsible for the operation that allowed
suspended PNP Chief Alan Purisima to oversee it. Ey Acasio
While the President was fully aware that Purisima was suspended by the Ombudsman on Dec. 4, 2014, and that Director Leonardo Espina was designated PNP OIC, still, he allowed Purisima to join the Jan. 9, 2015 meeting at the Bahay Pangarap, where a sensitive and classified PNP operation (Oplan Exodus) was being discussed, and instructed him to coordinate it with the Armed Forces.
She said the President also exclusively communicated with Purisima regarding the progress of Oplan Exodus on Jan. 25 and gave him instructions to conduct the operation. She said this can be gleaned from his text message to Purisima which read, “Basit should not get away.”
“The President himself admitted that all the communications regarding Oplan Exodus emanating from him to relieved PNP SAF commander Director Getulio Napenas, and vice versa, were being coursed through a then suspended Purisima,” Poe said.
She also said the Mamasapano incident raises serious questions about whether the President and other high-ranking government officials could have done more to minimize the death toll in the ill-fated operation.
Poe said the President has publicly acknowledged that he approved Operation Exodus, and knew of the importance and magnitude of the operation, as well as the dangers that it posed to the police commandos.
“If we are to believe the testimonies of the resource persons who were in Zamboanga,” Poe said, “it appears that the ongoing operation at Mamasapano was not discussed further by the President and the key security officials who were with him.”
“Did any of them endeavor to get more information about the incident? More importantly, did any of them take action to reinforce or rescue the beleaguered PNP SAF troops? It appears that the President, along with Secretary (Manuel) Roxas (II), Secretary (Voltaire) Gazmin, [and] Gen. (Pio) Caapang, could have done more,” she said. If the President had exchanged information with his key security officials who were with him in Zamboanga, perhaps coordination between the Army and the PNP might have been hastened and fewer lives would have been lost, Poe said.
As commander-in-chief of all the Armed Forces, the President exercises supreme operational command of the nation’s military forces, Poe said. The President also controls all the executive departments, bureaus and offices. He wields awesome powers of government, and has its vast resources at his disposal.
“The President’s decision not to use these resources at that instance must be explained by him,” she said.
And since he was familiar with the plan, the President should have stepped in and taken responsibility, the senator said. In trying to absolve himself of any culpability, the President insisted he was given inaccurate information, and that his orders to coordinate with top PNP and AFP officials were disobeyed. “At this crucial time, it is imperative that the President display unquestionable leadership, be forthright and candid with our people, accept responsibility for all decisions he makes as President, and admit the mistakes he made along the way,” Poe said. Poe also said the Mamasapano incident was clearly a massacre, and not a mis-encounter as some government officials first portrayed it to be. The rebels, belonging to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) murdered and robbed the 44 SAF commandos, she said.
The executive summary underscored the testimony of survivors who recounted how their companies were surrounded and decimated, and that even wounded SAF soldiers were fired upon. While her committee leaves the responsibility of identifying the particular assailants to the Department of Justice, she said they can be charged with murder and attempted murder. Purisima, Poe said, was guilty of usurping authority when he continued carrying out official functions despite his suspension. She said Purisima personally took charge of the presentation of the updated plan to capture Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir alias Marwan and Filipino bomber Abdul Basit Usman before the President on Jan. 9.
“Purisima should not have been at this meeting where a highly classified police operation was being discussed. The President should have excluded Purisima from this meeting,” said Poe. She said the resigned PNP chief can also be cited for contempt and charged administratively for grave conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service.
Purisima’s acts, she added, showed a clear intent to defy the Ombudsman’s preventive suspension order and constituted unlawful behavior.
Poe said sacked SAF commander Getulio Napeñas committed “grave misconduct, inefficiency and incompetence in the performance of official duties and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of service.”
Asked how the President could be made accountable for the blunders committed in the Mamasapano operation, Poe said the only process available is impeachment.
She declined to comment further, however, because senators will sit as judges if an impeachment complaint reaches the Senate. She said beyond the legal considerations, there were political repercussions as well.
“This is a big blow. Just because there may be no criminal liability doesn’t mean the President didn’t suffer any damage. He is facing a political crisis,” she said.
Poe prodded the President to be candid and speak truthfully so that the public and the families of the slain police commandos will get a clear picture of what really happened.
Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto said he thought the Poe report was “fair, perceptive and judicious.” “It will contribute so much in explaining the tragedy that was Mamasapano, in drawing lessons so it won’t happen again, assign culpabilities, and prescribe recommendations, which, if followed, will hasten the process of healing and the delivery of justice,” he said in a statement.
He added that the Senate report should be read together with the findings of the police board of inquiry.
“Combined, the two give us a good picture of what really happened and the road map going forward,” Recto said.
“The Poe report correctly pointed out when the command structure fractured, and what could have been done by high officials to save the day and turn the tide for our troops,” Recto added. The report minced no words in pinning blame on those who coddled the terrorists, rightly called the incident a massacre, and did not tiptoe around US involvement and sponsorship of the operation, Recto said. “US personnel played a role in the training before, and monitoring, of the… operation,” Poe told reporters as she released her findings. “The committee found that the United States substantially invested in the entirety of Oplan Exodus. It provided equipment, training and intelligence.”
The Senate report raised questions about the accountability of the United States, a longtime military ally of the Philippines that has so far declined to outline its role in the operation. Three unnamed Americans were brought into the Army brigade headquarters during the operation, creating tensions at a crucial time with the Filipino military commander, the Senate report said. “One of the Americans ordered Maj. Gen. Edmundo Pangilinan to fire the artillery,” the report stated.
“However Pangilinan refused and told him, ‘Do not dictate to me what to do. I am the commander here.’”
A US embassy spokesman in Manila did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the Senate report. Poe said there was no evidence to show the United States was involved in combat, but said there were concerns that Washington’s influence on PNP was too strong.
“This raises a question of whether the PNP leadership would have entered into such a risky and hazardous operation without the support of the United States,” the report said.—With AFP
