Text messaging used in secret operations?

I watched with grave seriousness the live feed over ANC of the Senate investigation on the Mamasapano massacre chaired by Sen. Grace Poe. Also in attendance were important members of the Aquino Cabinet in full force, including the Philippine National Police officials and the Armed Forces of the Philippines top brass.

Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile came out openly attacking Pres. Benigno Aquino III directly and personally for his role in the Mamasapano massacre. Incidentally, no less than Sen. Grace Poe clearly stated that the Mamasapano incident was a massacre not a misencounter as what the Aquino Regime tried to tag this incident.

JPE directed his first questions to former Special Action Force  head Gen. Getulio Napeñas who admitted that DILG Usec. Rico Puno was also present during the operation planning of Oplan Exodus. He admitted that he was in Balay Pangarap to prepare the concept of operations of Oplan Exodus. This means that Pres. Aquino, as JPE pointed earlier, was involved in this operation from day one. It was also the first time we learned that Rico Puno was involved in Oplan Exodus.

Gen. Napeñas clearly stated that the Mamasapano incident started as Oplan Wolverine on April 2014 during a briefing presentation in Camp Crame with DILG Sec. Manuel “Mar” Roxas and PNP chief Alan Purisima. So in the end, Mar Roxas already knew that such a plan to capture Marwan was already in the offing, which later became Oplan Exodus.

JPE clearly pointed out that Pres. Aquino “compartmen-ted” the chain of command, which Gen. Napeñas confirmed that even DILG Sec. Roxas was put out of the loop. JPE explained that compartmentalization is keeping others who should be involved in an operation from getting any information of that information.

JPE went on to ask Gen. Napeñas how the Americans were involved in the Mamasapano incident? He replied that they provided “intelligence, training, and training equipment” to the SAF. Gen. Napeñas did not say whether the Americans involved were with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the USA. JPE added that the reward money was US$5 million dollars and asked who provided the reward money? Napeñas replied that the US provided a reward of US$5 million while the Philippine government gave P7 million. No mention of two dead Americans surfaced.

During the question and answer portion, JPE questioned AFP chief Gregorio Pio Catapang and remarked, “The chain of command had frozen.” Of course Gen. Catapang insisted that the chain of command was intact but that they were clearly not involved in Oplan Exodus. JPE also asked Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin if he was with the President in Zamboanga and he answered that he was, but was also blind about Oplan Exodus.

What we got from the Senate investigations are confirmations of questions we have been asking in the last year about the Mamasapano massacre, and now it can be told that JPE did right in coming out in the open to tell the truth to the Filipino people, and placing much of the blame on the doorstep of Pres. Aquino whom he says used his pal former PNP chief Alan Purisima to escape being blamed for the untimely deaths of the 44 SAF Troopers. This I strongly believed to be true!

Of course allies of the President like Sen. Teofisto Guingona III tried to defend the President, saying that the latter acted only upon the information given to him. Nice try Sen. Guingona for trying to cover for PNoy. But he is running against the tsunami of the truth!

I’ve been watching the live feed on ANC the whole morning but as my deadline neared, I still have not heard the audio report that JPE wanted to be played during the Senate investigation. I’m sure that this report will be out in the front pages of this paper tomorrow.

What we have pieced together is that the top AFP generals and PNP officials, including Cabinet secretaries are heavy users of short messages systems (SMS) even on very vital and critical operations. In my book, these people should have used high-frequency radios, which is hard to decipher and record. All of them, including the president, liberally use text messaging even in secret operations like Oplan Exodus, where even top Cabinet secretaries, the AFP top brass were not informed of this operation.

What is also crystal clear is the effort exerted by the Aquino Regime and their ilk to insulate the president from any responsibility on the Mamasapano massacre, which by the way happened on the birthday of the President’s mother, the late Pres. Corazon C. Aquino. Clearly, information, as JPE pointed out, was “compartmentalized” and important players kept in the dark, which is why when the president sought for back up support, it was already too late in the hour and 44 SAF troopers met their untimely demise.

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