The search for truth begins
AFTER so many days of charges and counter-charges over the killing of 44 Special Action Force (SAF) commandos of the Philippine National Police (PNP) in Mamasapano, Maguindanao, the first concrete attempts to get at the facts began this week with the opening of the investigation by the Senate Committee on Public Order led by Sen. Grace Poe Llamanzares.
The first day concentrated on the planning for the operation and the role of PNP Director General Alan Purisima who, despite his having been suspended by the Ombudsman, apparently was the key figure in the planning for the operation to arrest Malaysian bombing expert Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan.
The chief of the SAF, Diretor Getulio Napeñas Jr., told the Senate that at a briefing with the President at Bahay Pangarap in Malacañang on January 9, he was told by Director General Purisima not to inform the two officials above him in the chain of command – the PNP Officer-in- Charge, Deputy Director General Leonardo Espina, and Secretary Mar Roxas of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), the government department which administers the PNP. When it was his time to testify, Purisima said he only gave advice, not an order, to Napeñas.
This failure to inform his superiors and the consequent failure of the PNP to coordinate with the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in the area has been blamed for the death of the 44 out of 392 SAF men sent to arrest Marwan in territory controlled by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
This is only the beginning of the effort to unravel the many twists and turns of the Mamasapano incident. There are so many other questions that need to be clarified. Among them are the SAF chief ’s claim that their operations in the past sometimes failed when they informed the military in advance, the brutality with which the SAF 44 were treated, and the involvement of Americans in the operation, apart from their offer of a $5-million bounty for Marwan.
Other agencies of the government are poised to hold their own investigations. The House of Representatives will vote on a proposal to set up a Truth Commission. The Department of Justice has been directed to complete its investigation in two months. The PNP already has its Board of Inquiry. It will probably take more than two months to clarify everything, but at least the process of getting to the truth has begun.
This should give some consolation to the families of the SAF 44. And this should clear up some of the tangled relations between the AFP and the PNP. And between the government and the MILF which have a ceasefire agreement, pending the creation of the Bangsamoro Entity in Mindanao.
Apart from the human loss suffered by the families of the SAF 44, the Bangsamoro peace program is perhaps the biggest setback suffered by the government as a result of the Mamasapano incident. It is hoped that in time, after all is bared and clarified by the open investigations, trust will be restored and the nation can again move forward.