‘Rody took responsibility for misencounter to end blame game’

MANILA, Philippines — In wanting to end the finger pointing over the alleged mistaken encounter between policemen and soldiers in Samar, President Duterte took full responsibility for the incident, Malacañang said yesterday. 

Six policemen died and nine others were hurt after they were fired upon by Army troops in Villarreal, Samar last week. The soldiers, members of the Army’s 87th Infantry Battalion, were sent to the area to respond to a presence of communist rebels report.

While authorities are still investigating whether the “misencounter” was caused by a lack of coordination, Duterte already took the blame for it, saying the “ultimate” fault is on him as commander-in-chief of the armed forces.

“(It was) spoken like a true leader, the buck stops with him,” said presidential spokesman Harry Roque in a text message. 

He added that the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) would coordinate closely with one another to prevent similar clashes.

“It’s an unfortunate incident which should not happen again. Closer coordination can be expected between the AFP and the PNP in future ground combat operations,” the spokesman said. 

Lt. Gen. Rafael Valencia of the joint AFP-PNP investigation team said their initial findings ruled out the possibility of an ambush, as earlier reported.

 He appealed for patience as the team tries to finalize the report and present it to Duterte to shed light on the incident and close the issue, especially to the grieving families seeking justice.

The joint team, he added, is also focusing its inquiry on the possible lapses on observing the proper protocol and coordination and is hoping to come up with a basis to improve or establish a better mechanism on joint operations for both the AFP and PNP to avoid a similar occurrence in the future.
  In a statement, the Army’s 8th ID said the AFP and PNP have “maintained a very harmonious relationship for the longest time and formed a formidable team as dependable pillars of the government in the security sector that addresses security concerns and interest of the country.” 
 It added that both the Army and the PNP considered the incident “isolated and very unfortunate” considering that lives were sacrificed in the course of performing a common objective of protecting and bringing peace to the community.
  Maj. Gen. Raul Farnacio, 8th ID commander, said his unit hopes “that the people will always have the same trust and confidence in their protectors.”

 “It is just that sometimes, things do happen beyond our control,” he added as he reiterated his unit’s sincerest condolence to the families of the victims.

 Farnacio said the AFP in general remains optimistic that the situation will be resolved immediately so that they can continue working and focus on matters more essential to the interest of government and country.

Duterte has urged the security forces to “forget” about the incident because the attack was not intentional and ordered them to continue the investigation to determine what lapses were committed during the operation. 

The military has relieved 87th Infantry Battalion chief Lt. Col. Arnel Floresca from his post to give way to an impartial probe of the incident. 

Meanwhile, Surigao del Sur Rep. Johnny Pimentel, chairman of the House committee on good government, attributed the Samar incident to a case of “misidentification.” 

 “Without prejudging the outcome of the inquiry into the incident, we are prepared to accept it as a case of friendly fire due to misidentification,” Pimentel said. “Sadly, we still have hostilities in the countryside. And where there’s warfare, there’s always the peril of confusion on the ground.”

In a statement, Pimentel blamed the “fog of war” for the tragedy and called for a top-level “interoperability conference” between the AFP and the PNP. He said “improved force interoperability” on the ground would also enable police and military units to quickly seek reinforcement from each other after obtaining clearance from their respective headquarters. – Delon Porcalla