Mamasapano carnage PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS EARNS MORE QUESTIONS, CRITICISMS

By Manny Piñol

The engaging and conversational style of President Benigno S. Aquino III in delivering speeches which endeared him to the Filipino people in the past did not quite work well Wednesday night as his body language and explanation on the massacre of over 40 elite policemen in Mamasapano, Maguindanao last Sunday were met with criticism and skepticism.

“Parang hindi apektado smiling face pa pagspeech nya kagabi. walang malinaw kasi di nya sinabi kong anong dapat mangyari sa mga milf at biff na pumatay. easy lang sa kanya walang galit na naramdaman,” said a comment to the post which showed the President addressing the nation on live TV.

(He did not seem affected. He had a smiling face when he spoke last night. It was not clear because he did not say what action he would take against the MILF and BIFF who killed (the policemen). It appeared so easy on him. He felt no anger.)

Indeed, the President’s address marked by occasional mumbling in reading the lines in the teleprompter and interrupted by hard coughing, could best be summed up by three words: ambiguous, incongruous and incredulous.

While he admitted that he gave personal instructions to the relieved Special Action Force (SAF) commander Getulio Napenas to ensure that there was coordination for which he said he received a “Yes, Sir” answer, the President denied that he gave the last minute “Go” signal.

“Hindi sa bawat pagkakataon ay hinihiling nila ang pahintulot ko, dahil impraktikal naman kung hintayin pa nila ang clearance mula sa akin,” the President said in his speech.

President Aquino also gave a hazy answer to a reporter’s question during the press briefing which followed his speech on why Interior and Local Government Secretary Manuel Roxas III was kept in the dark on the operation.

The most critical issue which the President glossed over and basically skirted during his address to the nation was the role of suspended Philippine National Police Chief Alan Purisima on the operation.

While he admitted that it was Purisima who relentlessly pursued the planning of the operation to capture international terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan, he did not give a clear explanation on why the former police chief, whose suspension restrained him from undertaking official functions, was allowed to supervise a critical and sensitive police operation.

In what official capacity was Purisima cloaked with when he provided the President “advice” on the operation given the fact that he was under suspension?

Perhaps, the most incongruous statements the President delivered were when he asked the nation to honor the slain policemen as heroes but urged the nation that their death should not derail the search for peace.

“Isipin din po natin: Ang mga kasapi ng Special Action Force ay nasawi habang tinutupad ang kanilang tungkuling panatilihin ang kaligtasan. Kung hindi magtatagumpay ang prosesong pangkapayapaan; kung babalik tayo sa status quo, o kung lalala pa ang karahasan, di ba’t ito mismo ang kabaliktaran ng kanilang pinagbuwisan ng buhay?” he emphasized during his speech.

If indeed the search for peace is primordial and that not even the death of 44 SAF members should waylay the peace process, why did the President approve the operation against Marwan and another bomb-maker Basit Usman knowing that in undertaking the operation, government would be violating its commitment to the MILF not to enter the rebel redoubt without coordination?

Was the capture and neutralization of Marwan and Basit Usman so imperative and necessary that government was willing to take the risk of endangering the peace process?

Davao City Mayor Rody Duterte, who was so distressed by the death of the policemen, said that government, having forged an agreement with the MILF that government troops could only enter identified rebel territories through coordination, should just have waited for Marwan and Usman to get out of the MILF area and then undertake the arrest.

The “lack of coordination” is being used by the MILF now to justify the carnage and the murder of the SAF policemen.

There are, of course, questions also being raised by people on the sincerity of the MILF, such as: “If the MILF is committed to the peace process, why did they not inform the government on the presence of Marwan and Usman in their areas, since this is a stipulation in the “coordination” agreement?”

People are also outraged by the explanation of the MILF that the incident was a result of a “mis-encounter” given the long duration of the battle which lasted for almost 12 hours and the brutality and savagery which marked the killing of the SAF policemen.

All of these questions, however, are brushed off by the stock answer of the MILF: “If there was coordination, this would not have happened.”

The President himself virtually admitted that there was indeed a “lack of coordination” which marked the tragic operation thus boosting the MILF’s defense.

In the face of the ambiguous, incongruous and incredulous explanations, the President now is asking that the slain policemen be honored as heroes but that the nation should move on.

This clarion call by the President, in contrast to his previous exhortations which were heeded by a nation which believed in him, may no longer excite the Filipino people who are still asking for credible and clearer answers.

(Photo caption: Flag-draped coffins of SAF policemen slain in Mamasapano are lined up in Awang Airport tarmac where cargo planes will bring them to Manila for honors. Photo taken this morning by Councilor Shang Sampulna of Datu Piang, Maguindanao.)