MANILA, Philippines - A small group of Americans “provided real-time intelligence primarily for force protection” during the Mamasapano raid two years ago, retired Special Action Force (SAF) chief Getulio Napeñas said yesterday to dispute claims by former president Benigno Aquino III that the US played no role in the disastrous police operation.
In a television interview, Napeñas said US personnel were involved in tracking down the SAF commandos’ principal target, Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir alias Marwan, before and during the operation.
“It was only they who had that capability. We did not have it,” he said. President Duterte on Tuesday claimed the SAF raid in Mamasapano was an operation of the US Central Intelligence Agency.
The SAF killed Marwan. Two other targets escaped. The police commandos lost 44 men when they encountered Muslim guerrillas mostly belonging to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front while withdrawing from Pidsandawan.
Superintendent Michael John Catindig Mangahis, who was in charge of monitoring the movement of at least eight SAF teams from Zamboanga City and other parts of Mindanao to Maguindanao in the evening of Jan. 24 up to the next day, mentioned the presence of six Americans in an affidavit.
Mangahis gave the sworn statement to the PNP board of inquiry that investigated the operation and to the House of Representatives special committee on the draft Bangsamoro basic law headed by then Cagayan de Oro City congressman Rufus Rodriguez.
Mangahis said he saw “six American nationals” with Napeñas at the latter’s tactical command post (TCP) in Shariff Aguak town on the eve of the raid.
According to knowledgeable local officials, the town was about 10 kilometers from the general target area of SAF troopers.
Mangahis said aside from Napeñas, he saw then SAF deputy commander Supt. Noli Taliño, Supt. Richard dela Rosa, Supt. Abraham Abayari, Senior Insp. Lyndon Espe and a Police Officer 2 Belmes.
“I met them (US nationals) only at the TCP, but I do not know them. I saw them the following day as pilots of the helicopter that helped in evacuating our wounded personnel in the hospital,” he said.
Aquino, who was in Zamboanga City at the time of the SAF raid, was reportedly provided with real-time information about what was going on in Mamasapano.
During the separate House and Senate investigations into the Mamasapano carnage, Napeñas briefed lawmakers in closed-door sessions on the participation of the Americans.
Sources said the US team monitored the operation using a small King Air plane equipped with surveillance equipment, and not a drone as civilians and local officials in Mamasapano had reported.
The Americans focused their monitoring on the SAF team that raided the hut where Marwan and his two aides were believed hiding and did not keep track of the support group that had encountered Muslim guerrillas.
The raiding team lost nine men. The 36-man back-up contingent was wiped out, save for one survivor.
The Mamasapano debacle derailed the passage by Congress of the draft Bangsamoro basic law, which the Duterte administration is now trying to salvage.