If the rebuttal was intended to be a prelude to a legal defense anchored on a plea of insanity, I will accept it. Otherwise, it just sounded like an explainer for an entirely different incident, something that probably happened in another country or even in some alternative Aquino universe.
I’d forgotten how different former President Noynoy Aquino sees things from most people. Then I read his response to the allegations made by President Rodrigo Duterte earlier this week and I suddenly got a full dose of Aquino’s unique worldview to make up for the seven or so months that he’s been quiet in his Times Street man-cave.
What roused Aquino from his self-imposed seclusion was Duterte’s decision to create a commission that would revisit what is probably the worst military debacle of any contemporary administration—the slaughter of 44 police commandos that became known as the Mamasapano Massacre. You’d have to go all the way back to the treacherous Patikul Massacre of 1977 to find a similar incident, and then you’d “only” end up with 35 Army soldiers slain.
(Strangely, not a lot of people seem to remember that the Mamasapano carnage was not the only black eye suffered by our troops under Aquino’s term. Nineteen Marines were killed in Al-Barka, Basilan in October 2011, also at the hands of Moro rebels enjoying superior numbers; but that is another story that will, unfortunately, require another outrageously incredible Aquino exegesis.)
Going back to Aquino’s defense yesterday, it actually succeeded in raising more questions about his and other people’s roles in Oplan Exodus, that ill-planned and terribly executed Special Action Force operation that led directly to the massacre in a lonely Maguindanao cornfield, than answering the ones posed by Duterte. And that, by itself, is compelling testimony in favor of the severe detachment from reality that Aquino always seemed to suffer from, whether things go bad for him or not.
But let’s go to the tape, as they say. Aquino, first of all, gave a blanket denial that he did anything wrong or was even directly involved in the entire sad affair, from soup to nuts.
The only mistake that he allowed, he said, was in trusting former SAF chief General Getulio Napeñas to get the job done. He even made it sound like Napeñas—the designated scapegoat of the Aquino administration for everything that went wrong in Mamasapano—stabbed him in the back because he had previously given him a promotion.
But while Aquino was lavish with his blaming of an ordinary general, he exonerated his favorite man in uniform, who was neck-deep in all of Exodus. PNP chief Alan Purisima, Aquino’s former personal bodyguard who was serving out a suspension on corruption charges when the massacre happened, had vital information on the operation, he said, and “it would be the height of negligence if I deliberately omitted and disregarded any information coming from respondent Purisima.”
But neither he nor Purisima were to blame for anything, Aquino insisted. Because he was not the “proximate cause,” he claimed (meaning he didn’t kill any of the SAF 44 himself), he could not be held accountable.
Like the victims of super-typhoon Yolanda, the SAF 44 were apparently in the wrong place at the wrong time, it seems. It was the Noynoy Show all the way.
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Aquino even had an answer (well, sort of an answer) for why only two of the 44 were given the Medal of Valor, the highest citation that the government can give its uniformed personnel. He said the process was followed and only two made the cut; if Duterte wanted to give out more medals, he could do so, Aquino allowed, following the same process.
Of course, the rebuttal begs the question of why, if Duterte can review the process, why didn’t Aquino? But there was no explanation from Aquino, who could only say that he would “like to somehow believe” that his government addressed concerns of the survivors and relatives of the slain troopers through the grant of benefits, and livelihood and housing assistance.
Noynoy also responded to Duterte’s claim that Exodus was a CIA operation by saying that, as far as he was concerned, he talked to no Americans about the plan and afterwards. Does this mean there was no American government involvement? Of course not; it only meant that Aquino himself never talked to any American before, during or after Exodus.
A flat—and totally unconvincing—denial was also the response to the long-running charge that government peace negotiators convinced Aquino to order reinforcements to rescue the trapped SAF commandos. Chief negotiator Teresita Deles, Aquino said, was never involved; you could almost hear Aquino telling the lawyers drafting his statement: “next question.”
Finally, Aquino hit back at those “who choose to take advantage of the pain and grief of the families.” “This serves no purpose other than to reopen wounds for their own personal motives,” he added.
So, move on na lang, sir? Explain that to the commission, Noy.
And get ready with whatever outlandish and post-truth plea you’re eventually going to end up making to avoid a long jail term. Good luck.