The ‘cane of command’

It must have looked ironically funny when President Benigno “Noy” Aquino III was presented with a replica of the “vara de mando,” or cane of command that was used by the late President Emilio E. Aguinaldo. This was after President Aquino led last Friday the opening of the refurbished Aguinaldo Shrine in Kawit, Cavite.

President Aquino led the flag-raising ceremony and wreath laying at the tomb of General Aguinaldo where he was joined by the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) chairperson Maria Serena Diokno. Diokno told Mr. Aquino that Aguinaldo, regarded as the country’s first president of the republic, carried with him the “vara de mando” while he was capitan municipal or gobernadorcillo of Cavite El Viejo, the old name of Kawit.

The cane thus earned the monicker as Ag     uinaldo’s “vara de mando” that symbolized his authority as the Commander-in-chief.

Aside from the glass-encased “vara de mando,” the other main attraction of the shrine is the balcony where the Philippine flag was waved by Aguinaldo after he declared Philippine independence on June 12, 1898.

Still smarting over charges of breaking the chain of command in the execution of Oplan Exodus gone tragic, President Aquino gamely accepted the replica cane and even held it up in the air with a typical smile on his face. Then, he put back the cane in a special glass case that signaled the formal inauguration of the museum and start of tour. He did not deliver any speech nor allow any ambush interview.

The 55-year old President actually does not need any cane yet, a tool used to aid old folks and those with walking or health problems. Mr. Aquino, a Coke drinker who smokes a lot, was later rumored to have “collapsed” last Friday night. How these rumors erupted still puzzles Malacañang.

But late Saturday night, a netizen @RoicesNaguit claimed seeing PNoy and posted on Twitter a photo of him while at Gateway Mall in Cubao to spend “dinner with friends” unnamed.

Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda merely issued a paragraph quoting President Aquino having texted to him “no such thing” happened. Other than his vehement denial, the President did not show himself to the public the next day if only to dispute the rumors.

Speaking of text message, President Aquino has consented to allow telecommunications giant Smart Communications to release a transcript of his text exchanges – as requested by the Senate – specifically on Jan. 25 when Oplan Exodus was carried out by the Special Action Force (SAF) of the Philippine National Police (PNP).

Forty-four SAF troopers were killed in action and 16 were seriously injured on a covert mission to capture three wanted international terrorist bombers found hiding in Mamasapano in Maguindanao.

Malacañang announced last Friday the President gave his permission to Smart to furnish the Senate his SMS exchanges on that day with then suspended PNP director-general Alan Purisima and now relieved SAF chief Director Getulio Napeñas. The President – through Executive Secretary Paquito N. Ochoa Jr. – gave his consent to make public its content.

The presidential permission came a few days after the Senate Committee Report was released to the media, which among other things, declared President Aquino “ultimately responsible” for the tragic turnout of Oplan Exodus. It was obviously too late to be included in the committee Report. Twenty senators have signed the report and submitted it before the 16th Congress adjourned for the Lenten break last Friday.

As chair of the lead committee that looked into Oplan Exodus, Sen. Grace Poe of the Senate Committee on Public Order declared she would not reopen the inquiry into this matter just to accommodate the SMS transcript even if eventually submitted to them. However, Poe clarified, it may form part of the annexes of the report once they deliberate on it at the Senate floor when they resume session on May 4.

In the 129-page report, the Senate further took to task the President’s “giving assent to and failing to prevent the unlawful exercise of official functions” by Purisima involving self in Oplan Exodus even as the erstwhile PNP chief was under preventive suspension by the Ombudsman since Dec. 4.

Likewise, Poe frowned upon calls made by fellow Senators Alan Peter Cayetano and Antonio Trillanes IV to reopen the Senate inquiry. The two senators did not sign the report.

Cayetano wants to further grill the government peace negotiators and their counterparts from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) on violations of the peace agreement. The Senate Committee Report itself acknowledged the “original sin” committed by the MILF in coddling Malaysian terrorist bomber Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan.

Marwan was killed by SAF troopers while another suspected Malaysian terrorist, Amin Baco alias Jihad, and Marwan’s Filipino deputy Basit Usman, escaped. But on their way out of Mamasapano, the SAF troopers were blocked and engaged in battle by MILF rebels and their comrades from the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters and other private armed groups.

But Cayetano’s wanting to call back the government and MILF peace panels, Poe pointed out, can be raised before the Senate committee of Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. who has separate public hearings on the administration’s controversial Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL).

Trillanes, on the other hand, demands investigation of the rest of 392 SAF troopers for “cowardice” for allegedly refusing to join the rescue of their fellow SAF trapped in the kill zone. Poe, however, argued this can be administratively undertaken by the PNP.

The House of Representatives will pursue its own investigation into the Mamasapano incident and set hearings on April 7-8. This after 120 congressmen signed a petition asking Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. to allow the House probe to continue. The Speaker suspended the first House public hearing after it turned raucous and unruly.

Militant House solons want to invite the President to the hearing. The Senate and the PNP’s Board of Inquiry were one in saying the President broke the chain of command. What else would the House hearing achieve?

The country’s Constitution recognizes civilian supremacy over the military. This allows the President leeway to break the chain of command in the exercise of his prerogatives as Commander-in-chief of all the armed forces of the Philippines. And that’s exactly what P-Noy did. He wielded the “cane of command” like his predecessors did from the time of Aguinaldo.