DESPITE four nationwide addresses on the Mamasapano incident, President Benigno Aquino III has not adequately explained why he allowed his close friend suspended police chief Alan Purisima to participate in the covert operation in which 44 police commandos died, Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said Sunday.
In an interview over radio dzBB, Marcos said the President has presented several versions of what happened in Mamasapano, but couldn’t say why Purisima, suspended at the time by the Ombudsman over corruption charges, was allowed to join in the planning of Operation Exodus, the ill-fated mission to capture or kill an international terrorist and a Filipino bomb expert.
“Until now, there is no answer as to why he did this,” Marcos said. “It is only the President who can give the answer.”
A polcie board of inquiry concluded that the President broke the chain of command when he went to Purisima and not his officer-in-charge, Leonardo Espina.
Three committees in the Senate, which also investigated the incident, found that the President was “ultimately responsible” for the Mamasapano debacle when he allowed Purisima to participate in Operation Exodus.
Senator Grace Poe, head of the Senate’s public order committee, said the President must bear responsibility for giving consent to, and failing to prevent the unlawful exercise of official functions by Purisima.
She said testimony before the Senate showed the President relied on and directly coordinated with the suspended Philippine National Police chief.
She said the President also exclusively communicated with Purisima about the operation on Jan. 25, and gave him instructions on how to proceed.
Senator Francis Escudero, an ally of the President, disagreed with Marcos, saying Aquino had already explained why he tapped Purisima.
“The President already answered that. (Purisima) started the operation and he knew the operation,” Escudero said.
Escudero said the President also admitted he was deceived by Purisima, who gave him wrong or inaccurate information regarding the operation.
During his recent address to the graduates of the Philippine National Police Academy, the President criticized the police board of inquiry and the Senate panels that investigated the Mamasapano incident, accusing them of basing their findings on speculation.
He also asked for “understanding” but did not offer an apology.
But Marcos laughed off the President’s plea, and said he still must explain Purisima’s involvement in Operation Exodus.
He added that Aquino’s plan to convene a “national peace summit” to study the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) was aimed at gaining support for the bill, which many Filipinos now question or reject following the Mamasapano massacre.
He said the public has lost trust, not only in the MILF and the BBL, but the entire peace process.
The MILF leadership through its chief negotiator, Mohagher Iqubal, continue to assert that the killing of the police commandos was justified by self defense.
Addressing the members of Aquino’s “peace summit,” Marcos said the panel should inform the public not only about the positive aspects of the BBL, but also talk about its negative side.
“I hope this will be an informative council who will also deal on the constitutional infirmities of the BBL,” said Marcos.
“They should be objective and explain to the people all issues about it,” he said.
The Palace on Sunday said the peace summit would not supplant the legislative process.
“The National Peace Summit was convened to engage more stakeholders. There are many stakeholders who are out there and this is an instrument by which all the stakeholders can converge and discuss peace,” said Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda on state-run radio.
Lacierda’s assurances came after several lawmakers opposed the convening of a national peace summit.
Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, chairman of the 75-man House panel reviewing the BBL, reiterated that the House will pass the BBL based on “plenary powers of Congress in accordance with the collective wisdom of all its members.”
Rodriguez said the government cannot force congressmen to accept their proposal and the MILF cannot make demands on what version of the BBL it should approve because the proposed measure is replete with unconstitutional provisions in the first place.
“We cannot swallow [the BBL] hook, line and sinker here,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez also said the MILF cannot demand that Congress pass the BBL without changes.
Zamboanga Rep. Celso Lobregat, a member of the ad hoc panel, said the review proposed by the Palace was a tacit admission that they submitted a faulty bill and the opinions of “citizen leaders”
will not make the faulty provisions any less unconstitutional.
“The proposed BBL has been transmitted to Congress and both houses are deliberating on the measure. The Catholic Church, business sector or a conveners council cannot replace Congress,” said Lobregat.
On Friday, President Aquino urged citizen leaders to convene a National Peace Summit in order to meet and suggest improvements for the BBL.
He also said the peace process must move forward with the BBL, or people would start counting body bags again.
The opposition United Nationalist Alliance tore into the President for “terrorizing he people in the name of peace.”
“He is busy sowing fear instead of reason and rational discourse on the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law. He’s selling peace, in the context of terror,” said UNA interim president Toby Tiangco.
“What was going on in the President’s head when he said pass the BBL now or count body bags later? Has[Aquino] turned into a terrorist?” Tiangco said.
He added that the Aquino administration has only itself to blame for the rush to pass the proposed BBL, noting that the measure was “legally flawed.”
“The proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law should be within the framework of the Constitution. And if there are any delays to its passage, then the administration has only themselves to blame, for signing a peace pact that is legally flawed,” UNA said.
“What is worrying is that they have not been transparent at all. They are silling false hopes, and now they are busy sowing fear and social division,” Tiangco said.
He described Aquino as a willing “agent provocateur” of the MILF.
“The MILF and the peace panel relied on the President’s popularity at that time, and thinking that they can get away with its constitutionality. Probably, they thought the President’s popularity was a license for them to set aside legality,” Tiangco added.
The President has expressed his desire to have the BBL enacted before his term ends, and both houses of Congress have set a June deadline for its passage.
Tiangco said that everybody wants peace but the law granting autonomy to the Bangsamoro should be constitutional.
“We all want lasting peace but the BBL should not be [passed] at the expense of what the basic law of the land says,” Tiangco said.
An administration ally in the Senate, Senator Francis Escudero, said Sunday the BBL was primarily geared towards the interests of the MILF.
Escudero said government peace negotiators seemed to have compromised the interest of the country to the interest of the MILF leaders because the crafted BBL was tailor-fit for the interest of the revolutionary group and not for the interest of the people living in Mindanao.
“The stand of Presidential Peace Adviser Teresita Deles and government peace panel chairperson Dr. Miriam Ferrer to have the draft BBL approved as it is will not hold ground because of various unconstitutional provisions. If they insist on the approval of the BBL without amendments, the Senate will not do so,” Escudero said.
