Manila: A report compiled by the House of Representatives has blamed President Benigno Aquino for the deaths of 44 special action forces assigned to capture a wanted terrorist in the southern Philippines early last year.
The findings mirror those of a senate committee and the Philippine National Police (PNP) in 2015.
“The onus of responsibility for the massacre [of the 44 Philippine National Police Special Action Forces to get Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan in Mamasapano] falls squarely in the hands of President Aquino,” said the report released by Congressman Martin Romualdez.
“We concur with the findings of both the Senate Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs and the PNP Board of Inquiry that the President was and is ultimately responsible for the outcome of the mission,” the report said.
“It is clear from the actuations of the President, the members of the Cabinet security cluster, the senior Armed Forces of the Philippines and PNP officials, officers on the ground, the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP), and the government peace panel that there was a ‘stand-down’ order at the height of the firefight and eventually an elaborate effort to cover up the monumental blunders committed (by Aquino),” said the report, adding the ‘stand-down’ order was handed down “presumably through OPAPP” because Major Gen. Edmund Pangilinan withheld artillery fire after Mechanised Brigade Commanding Officer Colonel Gener Del Rosario asked for it.
Pangilinan was quoted as saying then that his reluctance was due to the “peace process between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)”.
Both parties forged a political settlement in 2014, after holding peace talks in 1997.
Aquino was in Zamboanga City, near Mamasapano, when the incident occurred, but texted then Western Mindanao Command General Rustico Guerrero for help 12 hours after the policemen were beleaguered, said the report, adding that Aquino “compartmentalised” the operations, coordinated only with SAF Director General Getulio Napeñas, and authorised suspended police chief Alan Purisima, to oversee the anti-terror operation.
Also blamed were former Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, presidential peace adviser Teresita Deles, and peace panel chair Miriam Coronel Ferrer for “cover-up to shield the President and even the MILF from assuming responsibility for the tragedy”.
Senate minority floor leader Juan Ponce Enrile reopened the probe last January 27, adding it succeeded in raising more points against Aquino.
Senator Grace Poe said her Senate committee report was sent to the Office of the Ombudsman in June 2015.
It held Aquino responsible for the incident; recommended the filing of charges for usurpation of authority and grave misconduct against Purisima and Napeñas, respectively; and criminal charges against the MILF, the renegade Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, and private armed groups for the death of the policemen.
