Doing a Pilate on Exodus

By now it’s clear the bungled “Oplan Exodus” was not named nor inspired by the biblical story of Exodus when Moses led to freedom thousands of fellow Israelites from slavery under the cruel leadership of Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses. Oplan Exodus was carried out by 392 elite troopers from the Special Action Force (SAF) of the Philippine National Police (PNP) to capture three most wanted terrorist bombers hiding in Mamasapano in Maguindanao last Jan. 25. If the operation plan has any resemblance to the biblical story, perhaps it is liberating the people of Mindanao from the cruelty of these heartless terrorist bombers.

As it turned out, Oplan Exodus got the imprimatur of President Benigno “Noy” Aquino III after meetings at Malacañang with then suspended PNP director-general Alan Purisima and erstwhile SAF chief Director Getulio Napeñas.

Although succeeding in neutralizing one of their targets, 44 SAF troopers were brutally killed in action on their way out of Mamasapano, a known stronghold of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

Before and after investigations into what went wrong with Oplan Exodus, the principal characters involved in this covert mission were now all washing their hands like the biblical character of Pontius Pilate.

Of course, we all know what Pontius Pilate did. He was the Roman governor of Judea who, according to the Gospel, refused to condemn Jesus of Nazareth. But faced by violence from the Jewish mob crying for the blood of Jesus, Pilate ordered his men to crucify him.

As the bible narrated, Pilate washed his hands before the crowd, saying: “I am innocent of this man’s blood.” Thus, Pilate’s washing his hands symbolized absolving oneself from responsibility.

While scanning Google about Pilate, I chanced upon an article “ How Much Blood in Pilate’s Hand?” by William Langley at The Telegraph where the British writer noted: “Over the years, and increasingly in modern times, Pilate’s story has come to echo a core political dilemma – the choice between rightness and expediency, between reality and perception.”

Langley quoted former British Prime Minister Tony Blair saying in an interview some years ago: “He (Pilate) commands our moral attention not because he is a bad man, but because he was so nearly a good man. One can imagine him agonizing, seeing that Jesus had done nothing wrong, and wishing to release him. Just as easily, however, one can envisage his advisers telling him of the risks, warning him not to inflame public opinion. It is a timeless parable of political life.”

It is a fitting description of the situation President Aquino finds himself in amid vain attempts by his advisers to get him out of Exodus fiascoes.

President Aquino, in his latest public address after the Jan. 25 Mamasapano incident, accepted anew responsibility for the 44 SAF troopers who lost their lives while executing Oplan Exodus. “As president, I am fully responsible for any result – any triumph, any suffering, and any tragedy – that may be borne of our desire for lasting security and peace,” Mr. Aquino told this year’s graduates of the PNP Academy last Thursday in rites held in Silang, Cavite.

Reading from teleprompter his prepared speech in Tagalog, the President implored: “To every Filipino who has felt failure or has been hurt because of the events related to this operation: It is with the abiding humility that I ask for your deepest understanding.”

Like his previous addresses on the same subject matter, President Aquino, however, offered no public apology.

This, despite the Senate panel and the PNP Board of Inquiry (BOI) report having separately found President Aquino responsible for the bungled mission to capture Malaysian militant Zulkifli bin Hir, along with his local accomplice Basit Usman and another Malaysian terrorist bomber with them in hiding in Mamasapano.

Both reports took to task President Aquino for having allowed Purisima – a known very close friend of his – to supervise the secret mission even while suspended from office by the Ombudsman. Worse, Purisima by his own decision, kept out of the loop other officials about Exodus.

But President Aquino disputed the findings of the two reports. The President even argued he was not personally interviewed to get his side in both reports of the senators and BOI. “How can guesswork, instead of facts, help clarify this issue?” the President rhetorically asked.

P-Noy swore before God he was telling the truth when he ordered both Purisima and Napeñas “to coordinate” with all concerned as called for in Oplan Exodus while it was still on the drawing board.

Ironically, in the internal investigation of the MILF into the Mamasapano incident, the MILF likewise did a Pilate. The MILF blamed, too, the SAF and all other Philippine officials concerned for “not coordinating” with them Exodus in alleged violation of their ceasefire agreement with the government.

The MILF insisted anew the SAF had a “mis-encounter” with the MILF rebels and some members of their breakaway Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters and other private armed groups living in Mamasapano. And as expected, the MILF denied coddling Marwan and two other terrorist bombers, all fugitives subject of warrants of arrests being served by SAF in Oplan Exodus.

A day after doing another Pontius Pilate act, President Aquino announced having enlisted the help of key leaders from religious to business and civil society sectors to help sell to the Filipino people the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) as part of the government’s peace deal with the MILF.

In a national address last Friday to mark the first anniversary of the government-MILF peace pact, President Aquino announced these citizen leaders include Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Tagle, businessman Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, civil society leader Howard Dee, and peace advocate Bai Rohaniza Sumndad-Usman, and former Chief Justice Hilario Davide.

This is like applying a deodorizer to the stink now coming out from the BBL deal with the MILF. It took a tragic end of Oplan Exodus for Congress to hit the brakes on breakneck speed to okay the BBL. Like Pilate, PNoy brings the BBL to a new review group.

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In deference to the Lenten season, we are not holding our Kapihan sa Manila Bay this Wednesday. We will resume our regular weekly breakfast forum on April 8 in the same venue at the 6th floor of Luneta Hotel in T.M.Kalaw St. in Manila. We shall announce later who will be our next featured guest.