Charged at last
The Ombudsman has finally charged Noynoy Aquino before the Sandiganbayan in connection with the 2015 massacre of 44 members of the elite Philippine National Police Special Action Force by Moro bandits in the town of Mamasapano, Maguindanao. The government troops were on a mission to take down three terrorists led by a Malaysian who were being coddled by the bandits.
Other people involved in the planning and execution of the top secret mission have long been similarly charged. But not Aquino who was in the center of it all, being the president and commander-in-chief at the time. That is, until now. Why it took the Ombudsman so long to include Aquino in the charges, one can only surmise. And what one surmises, it can no longer be flattering to the Ombudsman.
The time to salvage the credibility of the Ombudsman has long passed. It could have asserted that credibility had it included Aquino in the original charges it filed considering that they stemmed from the same incident and involved the same people. But the Ombudsman, for whatever reason, did not. And now, for whatever reason, it has changed tack. It found out, quite belatedly, that there was basis to charge Aquino after all.
A SAF general by the name of Getulio Napenas had long been after the head of international terrorist Marwan, a Malaysian hiding among Moro bandits in Mindanao. His pursuit of Marwan dated back to when police general Alan Purisima was the PNP chief. By the time Napenas was absolutely sure where Marwan was, Purisima was not the PNP chief anymore, having been suspended, also by the Ombudsman, following a controversy involving a firearms licensing deal.
Still Napenas sought out Purisima, given what he knows about the subject of Marwan, and perhaps more importantly because of Purisima’s closeness to Aquino. So the two of them went to confer with Aquino, who gave his blessings to the new mission to get the wanted terrorist. The mission was to be so hush-hush that other top security officials were kept in the dark.
That is, until things went terribly wrong. The initial raid succeeded in getting Marwan and the two other terrorists. But with their cover blown, the raiding SAF teams became sitting ducks for every Moro bandit in the area who now had the opportunity and the justification to unload their weapons on the government troops. Worse, there were no reinforcements coming.
Every excuse was given to hold back the reinforcements so as not to expose the hand of the president, who was already conveniently in Zamboanga in anticipation of a successful mission. By the time news started leaking out of the horrible fiasco, every ranking official was already washing their hands, using the fact of their being out of the loop as a convenient excuse to feign
‘The only consolation is that now there is an opportunity to set things right. And never mind if the belated Ombudsman decision to sue Aquino is due to some entirely
different reason.’
innocence.
Aquino played a major role in the Mamasapano operation. No ifs or buts about that. That it turned out horribly wrong was just very unfortunate. But had it turned out very well, I am sure Aquino would be all over the place to claim credit for it. But it is too late for what could have been. The only consolation is that now there is an opportunity to set things right. And never mind if the belated Ombudsman decision to sue Aquino is due to some entirely different reason.