Police and military officials were blasted by senators yesterday for claiming that they did not inform their commander-in-chief of the Mamasapano operation on Jan. 25, even whilst most of them were in the company of President Benigno Aquino III upon learning of the killings.
At the resumption of the Senate hearings on the Mamasapano incident, Senator Nancy Binay asked each security official where he learned about the clash in which 44 police commandos were killed by Moro rebels.
Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II, Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin and Armed Forces chief Gen. Gregorio Pio Catapang Jr. said they were in Zamboanga City with the President on the morning of the operation to inspect the site of a car bomb blast that killed two people and injured 48.
Roxas said he was informed of the battle at about 8 a.m. but did not make much of it since it was ordinary for him to get reports about skirmishes in Maguindanao with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. He added that he did not think much of it until after they landed in Zamboanga with Aquino at 10:30 a.m.
“I did not know that there was a Special Action Force operation. When we got to Zamboanga I asked General (Edgardo) Ingking, the director for integrated police operations, what happened. He said it was an SAF operation,” he said.
Like Roxas, Gazmin also said he did not inform the President of the heavy casualties from the battle.
“I didn’t inform the President,” Gazmin admitted. “First, to me there was no sense of urgency because I get similar reports every day and it was not until the casualties mounted that I mentioned the matter to the President because this is a PNP operation,” Gazmin said. Incredulous, Binay asked: “You already comprised the majority of the security Cabinet cluster and not one of you mentioned even to the President the Mamasapano?”
“Ma’am, we didn’t know this was a big problem. We didn’t know there was an operation ongoing,” Roxas replied.
But when Binay asked who broke the news to the President, not one among the resource persons could answer.
“I did not inform the President. We were very focused on the Zamboanga bombing the whole day,” said Catapang.
Resigned PNP chief Alan Purisima, who admitted “advising” the President about the operation, was also asked if he informed the President about the loss of life, but he asked for time to seek clearance from Aquino before answering the question. Despite the questions from the senators about Aquino’s role in the botched operation, the Palace said Thursday that everything that needs to be said about the Mamasapano clash had already been disclosed. Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma deflected questions as to what time the President learned of the Mamasapano carnage while he was in Zamboanga City on Jan. 25 as well as what were his immediate directives.
“Everything that the President needs to disclose on the Mamasapano incident, he has already stated in his three speeches: his national address on Jan. 28 where he took some questions from the media; his speech on Jan. 30 during the necrological rites; and his second national address on Feb. 6,” Coloma said.
“All that the President knows, and all that the President thinks should be known by the public, he has already bared in his speeches,” Coloma added.
The Palace official insisted that there is no effort to hide any vital information from the public.
“We are guided by the principles of transparency and accountability,” he said. When Coloma was asked on the timeline of Aquino’s actions in Zamboanga City on the same day that the Mamasapano clash happened, he said that the public should not engage in speculations as these do not help in efforts to unearth the truth.
“It is not good to do premature and unwarranted conclusions while we have not yet gotten the complete result of the probe,” he said. Coloma was also asked about the perception that Roxas and Gazmin were covering up for the President.
“We should be careful on the words that we use. I heard from you the words ‘impression’ and ‘cover up.’ Are these not conclusions? Is it not better for us to wait the result of the probe?” he said. Coloma was then asked why resigned PNP chief Purisima had to seek clearance from the President before divulging whether he informed Aquino or not of the Mamasapano massacre.
“He was the one who was asked, so he is also the one who has authority on his statement. How did it become my job to interpret every word or sentence?” Coloma said.
But lawmakers and militant groups demanded Thursday that Aquino and Purisima explain to Congress what was discussed at several meetings they held on the covert Mamasapano operation. They lambasted Purisima for dodging the questions by invoking executive privilege and his request to get clearance from the President. (Details C/O MST,