Senate investigation finished

The Senate committee on public order and security has terminated its investigation into the Mamasapano massacre after five public hearings and three executive sessions.

The last hearing Tuesday saw an emotional Major General Edmundo Pangilinan expressing his bad feelings about his 6th Infantry Division men, who has jurisdiction over Maguindanao, being blamed for the death of 44 Philippine National Police-Special Action Force (PNP-SAF) troopers.

The relieved Special Action Force (SAF) commander Director Getulio Napeñas belatedly expressed his thanks to the Philippine Army (PA) for sending reinforcements as SAF troops were pinned down at the height of the Mamasapano gunfight, a turnaround statement from his earlier claim that if the AFP had sent artillery support his 44 slain men and the lives of the 9 SAF members of the 84th Seaborne company, which engaged in a firefight with Bangsamoro Islamic  Freedom Fighters (BIFF), could have been saved.

On this last day, Senators Alan Peter Cayetano and Ralph Recto took turns in criticizing Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) Secretary Ging Deles and chief peace negotiator Miriam Coronel-Ferrer for not taking the cudgels for the Philippine government side.

Cayetano berated the two Philippine officials for not making a formal demand for the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to surrender their rebels who are responsible for the killing of the thirty-five 55th Special Action Company (SAC) members.

Deles stated that this is not yet the time to demand from the MILF to surrender their members who were involved in the deaths of the 44 police commandos. “What we have put forward is for full accountability. We need to wait for the Department of Justice (DOJ) to say who exactly they want to be surrendered and on what charges,” Deles said.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said there is a proper time “to demand.”

Due to Interior Secretary Mar Roxas’ inconsistent statements, Senator Nancy Binay criticized him for initially denying having informed the President of the SAF-MILF encounter – only to admit it Monday that he had informed the President of the encounter at 8 a.m. on January 25. The neophyte senator went on to give Roxas a gentle reminder about making statements under oath, which obviously offended Secretary Roxas.

Senator Grace Poe did an excellent job in chairing the hearings and kept the proceedings under control.

There was unanimity among the resource persons that General Purisima was the commander of Oplan Exodus.

The question now: Since General Purisima and General Napeñas were singled out as accountable for their alleged failure to coordinate their mission called Oplan Exodus with the military, what disciplinary action will be taken against them?

The other big question is will Justice Secretary Leila de Lima be able to file charges against the MILF rebels who did the killings, especially those who brutally finished off the wounded SAF troopers?

Will the MILF accept a revised Bangsamoro Basic  Law (BBL), especially deleting the four unconstitutional provisions?

The Senate and the House will surely delete the unconstitutional provisions.

Senator Poe will now wait for the report of the Board of Inquiry (BOI) and the report of the MILF investigation before finalizing its report.

US involvement confirmed

General Getulio Napeñas confirmed the United States  assistance in Oplan Exodus. In fact, a SAF officer said six American counterparts were at the SAF tactical post at Sharif Aguak. But the US counterparts never took part in actual operations.

Napeñas said the US military was involved in the intelligence gathering, training of local forces and monitoring of Operation Plan Exodus to neutralize Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan.

Napeñas testified that US assistance came in the form of intelligence-sharing information against their target and the use of equipment during operations such as the aircraft used in the evacuation of the affected SAF policemen.

US assisted also in the recovery of the bodies of SAF casualties and medical evacuation.

Americans were waiting to receive the finger of Marwan at General Santos.

Officially, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and the US Embassy denied any US participation in the Oplan Exodus operation.

Why? When it is admitted that there is nothing illegal for the US to help in an anti-terrorism operation.

Unity march

Soldiers of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and members of the PNP engaged in a unity march at the People Power Monument.

But one unresolved issue is the statement of SAF Director Napeñas that General Purisima and himself decided not to inform AFP units because such previous operations were compromised.

It was suggested that contacts of AFP units in the area of Mindanao had warned Marwan and the MILF of plans to try to capture and arrest the terrorist.

The AFP should investigate the Napeñas charge. It is unacceptable that the MILF has contacts with AFP personnel who tipped them off of SAF operations.

Another unresolved issue is the fact that while reinforcements from the military were requested as early as 5:30 a.m., none was sent until 13 hours later in the afternoon.

It is estimated that the 35 SAF members of the 55th SAC were still alive up to 1 p.m.

The question is why in spite of the three rivers surrounding the area of operation, the SAF forces did not have inflatable rafts to enable them to cross the rivers?

So many other deficiencies indicate poor planning, including the lack of helicopters and guns to back up the SAF troopers.