A mess
What a mess! This is what I can say so far with regards to the ongoing Senate and House investigations on the Mamasapano Massacre. I wanted to listen to at least two days of hearings before commenting on it, which is basically what this column is. What is clear is actually unclear. Although it looks like General Getulio Napeñas' head will definitely roll, one cannot possibly discount the very large involvement of suspended PNP Director General Alan Purisima. As Senator Miriam Santiago has stated, being in preventive suspension, Purisima did not, should not have any business with the PNP and any of its functions and operations. But from the looks of it, Purisima was very much involved.
Senator Santiago would also have nothing to do with Genera; Purisima's obvious play with words by saying he only advised and did not give a direct order to then SAF commander General Getulio Napeñas. We all know that this has been the default response of General Purisima since day one. That being suspended, General Napeñas should know better than to interpret his "advice" as an order. We can just shake our heads in disgust. And if I may just add, what a contrast at the House hearing, where we have a General shedding tears for his men. His brothers-in-arms who were mercilessly executed even as they lay helpless and probably dying, while another General answers questions to the tone of a recording, where he washes his hands of any involvement on the massacre. It would be interesting to ask had the mission been overwhelmingly successful, if he would still deny involvement, or if his advice would suddenly change to an order.
As for General Napeñas, what else can we say? He has assumed responsibility for the whole mess, the whole fiasco, the whole failure of Mamasapano. All fingers point to him, to the consternation of Senator Santiago. But then who is he in the whole scheme of things? Who is his superior officer since Purisima is preventively suspended? The PNP has an OIC in General Leonardo Espina but just like DILG Secretary Roxas, they don't seem important or significant enough to be even mentioned by name. You will recall General Purisima referring to them as "yung dalawa," while in the same sentence mentioning AFP Chief of Staff General Catapang's rank and name. That speaks volumes.
I really don't know if these hearings will ferret out the truth behind the Mamasapano fiasco. While one of the targets of the SAF was ultimately killed, one cannot call this as a mission accomplished. As the past weeks have shown, what happened was the result of poor, shabby planning, fraught with mistrust, disrespect and arrogance. I have heard time and again that cellphones were used in the frantic back and forth communications when things were going terribly south. What if there was network congestion at the time, which is not uncommon? What happened to radios, which is what is normally used in military operations? I can only shudder as to what military organizations all over the world are now saying about this.
My heart goes out to the families of the Fallen 44. Having their loved ones brutally taken away from them, they are now being subjected to more questions than answers, with the hearings actually providing nothing more than canned responses. It is clear that this mission could have been better planned and executed. The words "time-on-target" and "advice" must be sounding like a nail on a blackboard by now, much like "executive privilege."
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