Now it can be told: The US was involved!

We wrote columns a couple of weeks ago asking the question… what was the role of the US government in the Mamasapano, Maguindanao covert mission that ended in the deaths of 44 elite Special Action Force of the Philippine National Police? Well, last Tuesday, the Philippine Star had a front-page report that blared, "US military involved in Exodus.'

This was finally revealed by sacked SAF Commander Director Getulio Napeñas during an executive session in the Senate last Monday. Napeñas apparently told the senators that a US surveillance plane tracked Malaysian bomb expert Zulkifir bi Hir a.k.a. Marwan to his hideout in Mamasapano. Apparently the truth is being peeled quite slowly like peeling a banana, but I'm sure there's more to this story. Even Malacañang has now openly admitted this involvement by the US government. Now I can proudly tell my readers…"Did we not ask what was America's role in this tragedy?" Now it can be told!

If you recall that fateful day on May 2, 2011 when the US Navy flew a covert mission dubbed Operation Neptune Spear into Abbottabad, Pakistan in order to kill the world's number one terrorist Osama Bin Laden? Now that was a US Central Intelligence Agency operation using the United States Navy's Special Warfare Development Group called SEAL Team Six.

Last week the Philippine Star headlined the news report that the Federal Bureau of Investigation denied any involvement in Oplan Wolverine, now known as Oplan Exodus and we believed that report for the simple reason that the FBI doesn't do such high-risk operations especially on foreign soil. But with the testimony of Napeñas that indeed the US was involved in Oplan Exodus, plus the fact that everyone knows that Pres. Aquino was inside the US Drone Command Center in Zamboanga City last Jan. 25th then we can safely conclude that the CIA must have asked Pres. Aquino to see the action himself through video footages provided by either a US drone of an AWACS airplane.

While Operation Neptune Spear was in progress… CNN reported that the Cabinet of Pres. Barrack Obama was watching on TV while the operation in Abbottabad was going on. In short, Pres. Obama witnessed in real time how Osama Bin Laden was killed by a US Navy Seal and how they took his body out of his compound and sent it to a nearby US Aircraft Carrier waiting in the Indian Ocean.

Last week during the Senate investigation on this Mamasapano debacle, Sen. Ferdinand "Bong Bong" Marcos, Jr. asked Director Napeñas and suspended PNP Chief Alan Purisima was, "What time did you call Pres. Aquino to inform him that the SAF was experiencing heavy casualties. Both of them wouldn't or couldn't answer. I can only surmise that the two could not answer such a simple question because they probably know that Pres. Aquino was given a real time video footage of what was happening in Mamasapano when the 44 SAF were killed.

In five days, it will already be the first month anniversary of the untimely deaths of our 44 fallen brother Filipinos, whose families are crying out for justice. But for as long as the truth is coming out so slowly, we will never see justice for those 44 SAF soldiers unless no less than Pres. Aquino testifies before the Senate or Congress and answer the same questions that have been asked the two PNP officers. It would have been simpler if Pres. Aquino told the truth last Jan. 28th, three full days after the 2nd Maguindanao massacre.

So now in an effort to shift the focus away from Pres. Aquino, his loyal lap dog, Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, issued a statement, pointing at former Defense Secretary Norberto Gonzalez as a "coup plotter" but in the same breath, he says that Gonzalez doesn't have any influence with the military establishment. In the end, former Sec. Gonzalez was now the favorite host for morning TV shows and the evening news where he openly admitted last Tuesday that he was part of National Transformation Council asking President Aquino to step down.

Last Wednesday, the Philippine Daily Inquirer headlined the news that Former Tarlac Rep. Jose "Peping" Cojuangco Jr., the uncle of Pres. Aquino, also admitted that he was among those pushing for change in the country's leadership but claimed that the initiative was neither a prelude to a coup nor a military takeover.

When he was asked if he was the rich businessman referred to by Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago as the one behind the alleged coup plot, Cojuangco said: "No I'm not because I'm not in favor of a coup. I am against a military takeover. But I am in favor of major reforms or change in leadership, especially in the last crucial 16 months before the 2016 elections." Now this is an Aquino uncle who wants him to step down. I rest my case!