What Congress should do: Create a commission for Mamasapano inquiry

Manila Times Editorial

THERE is urgency and compelling necessity for Congress to create by law a national commission to investigate and report on the circumstances and facts surrounding the January 25 incident that led to the massacre of 44 members of the Special Action Force (SAF) of the Philippine National Police (PNP) in Mamasapano, Maguindanao.

It is urgent because the situation in the South is volatile and our troops and police are angry and edgy.

It is compelling because families are hurting, and everywhere citizens are demanding to know the truth behind this tragic affair. Too many good men have been killed.

An independent and bipartisan inquiry is the most efficacious way to answer all these concerns, and to pave the way for retribution against all those who are responsible.

Mamasapano not the first
This matter is vested with great public import because the Mamasapano tragedy is not the first time that our government has lost so many of our men in uniform in dealing with the rebellion and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)in Mindanao.

In October 2011 in Al-Barka, Basilan, in an incident that is eerily similar to Mamasapano, a unit of the Special Forces Battalion of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) lost 19 troops in an encounter with a combined force of the MILF and the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG). Some reports claimed they were victims of a massacre.

The two events have these ominous parallels:
1. Each involved the fielding by our police-military forces of ostensibly elite members of the corps, who are trained for major combat. Alas, they were not elite enough to prevail.

2. Each involved young officers and members, who were relatively new in their field of operations and for their missions.

3. The mission of each unit concerned the serving of an arrest warrant on a high-value target.

4. After the missions failed, higher-ups in the chain-of command ascribed failure to lack of coordination and incompetence.

5. Both incidents involved the MILF. And both occurred while there was supposedly a ceasefire in place. And the killings involved a degree of savagery and brutality.

6. Both incidents have occurred under the watch of President Benigno Aquino 3rd as Commander-in-Chief. In each one, he has shown great concern about the peace process and about the government’s peace deal with the MILF.

With Mamasapano, the President has pledged to get the terrorist bomber who escaped. With Al-Barka, he turned down the demands for an “all-out war” against Muslim rebels, with these words:

“It is so easy, out of frustration, to close the door on negotiations at this time. We will not pursue all-out war. We will instead pursue all-out justice.”

We call attention to these words now because justice was not served in Basilan. Sound bites this second time around will not be good enough.

US 9/11 commission a good model
Although the PNP and the Senate have scheduled their respective inquiries into Mamasapano, we submit that the formal inquiry to be conducted should be of wider scope and should delve deeper into conditions and precedents in the South, such as the Basilan incident. We are anxious that the inquiry is not infected by politics and grandstanding or by professional and bureaucratic self-protection.

We cite as a model for the proposed commission and its mandate the approach taken by the US Congress after the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon

The US Congress established the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, also known as the 9/11 Commission, on November 27, 2002. It was tasked “to prepare a full and complete account of the circumstances surrounding the September 11 attacks,” including preparedness for and the immediate response to the attacks.

The commission was also mandated to provide recommendations designed to guard against future attacks. The commission consisted of five Democrats and five Republicans. The bill was signed into law by President George W. Bush.

The commission’s final report was lengthy and based on extensive interviews and testimony. President Bush testified before the commission. Its primary conclusion was that the failures of the US Central Intelligence Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation permitted the terrorist attacks to occur and that, had these agencies acted more wisely and more aggressively, the attacks could potentially have been prevented.

After the publication of its final report, the commission closed on August 21, 2004.

We need peace, not process
We are disgusted, but not surprised, by news on Sunday that Malacañang opposes the proposed Senate Truth Commission. This suggests that the more comprehensive commission we propose here is even more anathema to the President.

We believe a full-fledged commission inquiry into Mamasapano is imperative, because in this country, we have plenty of laws, but not enough inquiry. If no one asks, no one tells.

The public will not know.

Today, there is little coherence in policy and purpose in the government’s actions in Mindanao and Sulu.

The inquiry will help our government move forward.    In the situation we face in the South, we want peace, not process.

We need the substance of peace, not the illusion of peace.

Instead of peace processors, we need hard-nosed peacemakers to speak for us.

HEAVY DEPENDENCE

By Amado P. Macasaet 

The economy welcomes the presence of the companies of the Liem group of Indonesia. Metro Pacific, the Philippine subsidiary, is everywhere but it has not ventured into any area that incurs high risk. 

The full management control of the Philippine Long Distance Company (PLDT) in spite of presumption that in a public utility a foreign investor’s equity is limited to 40 percent, borders on security of the state.

So does the concession of the water system west of the capital. Metro Pacific has expanded its business in the Philippines. It is in the toll-road system. It has acquired the most popular bread maker. 

Because the law prohibits foreign ownership in media, it’s presumed the investments in Business World and Philippine Star are personal to Manuel V. Pangilinan. Still, he owes loyalty to his bosses in Indonesia. He does not meddle in the management of the two newspapers. But he is a big part of it. 

The possibility of using the two newspapers to promote and protect the Indonesia business interest in the Philippines is a dire possibility although there are no signs that Pangilinan has a mind to go that far. 

Pangilinan is a skillful investor. MVP’s group practically runs Philex Mining a public utility. However, foreigners can own all of the shares of mining operation if it enters into a financial and technical agreement with the government. Pangilinan’s  Indonesian bosses are in critical areas like water and communications. His personal – presumably –interest in media including a popular TV channel is a   shield that may well be used to protect the bigger investments of the Liem Group in the Philippines. 

None of these is to say the Indonesia investments in the Philippines, almost solely handled by MVP is not in the public interest. After all, the government has been campaigning for foreign investments. 

The Liem group through Metro Pacific is taking a big risk investing in the Philippines with hardly any invitation. It came here almost solely on the word of Pangilinan. He proved to his bosses in Indonesia that investing in the Philippines is a good idea in terms of making profits. 

Metro Pacific is involved in power generation, a business that may also be considered critical to national security. 

The Liem Group of Indonesia, represented in the Philippines by Metro Pacific and its numerous subsidiaries has its fingers in many pies. 

In fairness, however, all investors – local or foreign – had the same opportunity that the Liem Group took advantage of.  Pangilinan might have been remarkably smarter than his competitors.

He saw for his Indonesian bosses what many Filipinos or foreigners did not see.

Still, there might be a need for reasons of national security, to disperse vital public utility projects to as many as possible.

There are no signs that the Indon group has designs that border on national security.  Theirs, like the rest, is a matter of cost-benefit ratios.  Pangilinan saw the costs.  He saw bigger profits from the costs.

That, and no other are the reasons the Metro Pacific Group, has expanded into many areas in the Philippines.

Their first venture was winning the bid for the military land in Fort Bonifacio, privatized by government as vital to the economy.  

It should come to everybody’s mind that the Philippines gave the Americans Parity Rights in 1947.  Americans were considered as Filipinos except for suffrage.  Clearly, the intention was to attract more US investments in the Philippines.  They were the first owners of PLDT.

After it was Filipinized at the expiration of the Parity Agreement, the Filipinos took over.  Today a large part of it is in the hands of the Indonesian investors headed here by Pangilinan.  

The sad part is other foreign investors were discouraged precisely because Americans were treated like Filipinos.  In fact, they owned PLDT, a public utility which, under the 1935 Constitution should be in the hands of Filipino citizens or Filipino-controlled corporations.

As if nothing changed with the expiration of the Parity agreement, PLDT is now effectively managed by Indonesians headed by Pangilinan. Benguet and a few other mines were completely owned by Americans.  They were practically the only foreign investors in mining. 

Other foreigners were limited by the Constitution to 40 percent equity.

The lesson that must be learned from the presence of the Liem Group in the Philippines is the necessity of amending the Constitution to lift limits on foreign investments.

Our view has always been the limits on what are described as businesses that must be controlled by Filipinos is one big factor that discourages foreign investors.  Public utilities and exploration of natural resources are the most risky business ventures.  Worse than that, the Filipino investors never had enough funds to take the risks.

It should dawn on so-called nationalist – strident in their words and actions but never had much to make a dent on businesses where foreigners are limited to 40 percent – important to the economy is the production of a product, creation of jobs, payment of taxes and contributions to the gross international reserves.  


***

email:amadomacasaet@yahoo.com

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The complex Mindanao problem

By Elizabeth Angsioco

Tempers are running very high. We are upset by the tragic death of 44 of the Philippine National Police’s (PNP) Special Action Forces (SAF) in the lair of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). This is the same MILF with whom government is negotiating peace and working for the enactment of the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL).

This top secret operation, known to President Noynoy Aquino, is said to have been led via remote control by suspended PNP Chief Alan Purisima. It was so secret that even the PNP’s immediate superior, Secretary of the Interior and Local Government (SILG) Mar Roxas was kept in the dark.

The President’s address to the nation on Wednesday upset people even more as vital questions were left unanswered. His absence at Thursday’s arrival of the fallen 44, and his decision to instead go to the launch of a car manufacturer’s plant while the SAF officers were being honored, did not sit well with observers. Pictures of him smiling and touring the plant with its executives were posted at the same time the solemn ceremony in Villamor and grieving families were being shown. No amount of justification by Malacañang and its supporters could placate people’s anger.

The fact that Friday’s necrological services for the fallen heroes, supposed to be led by PNoy himself, had to be suspended because the president was very late, made people more irate.

Grief and anger are palpable. And these are justified reactions. However, anger can be channeled to something productive. We should remember that the main problem is the Mindanao problem. Trying to understand its complexities may be a good first step.

I requested a friend from way back for his thoughts on this. I yield my space to the words of Jerry “Jing” Pacturan, born and raised  in Bukidnon, a former CSO leader and former senior government official:

“A Mindanaoan’s View of the Complex Issues Facing the Land of Promise

 When Mindanao is in trouble, Manila is shaken and the whole country is upset. How do we understand Mindanao? How should our compatriots in Luzon and Visayas view Mindanao? And,  how should our political, economic and cultural-religious leaders offer solutions to the problems of Mindanao and the country as a whole?

 The issues and problems are basic – historical injustice, poverty, and religious beliefs taken to the extreme. These are inter-related issues in Mindanao that any peace loving Filipino should understand.

 The political-economy of Mindanao has been intertwined with our colonial legacy and the changing roles of our political and economic elite since the arrival of the Spaniards in the 1500s.

Even before Magellan landed on our shores, Arab Islamic missionaries were already in the south perhaps as early as the 9th century.

Spain was not successful in its military conquest of the islands, neither were the Americans in the 1900s despite their cruel campaign.

The Bud Dajo massacre in 1906 is a testament to the US government’s ruthlessness then.  Fifty years under the Americans, Mindanao was subjugated economically with the entry of their agri-business companies like Del Monte and DOLE.

 Our forebears in the 1800s and our political and economic elite in the 1900s fought for political and economic freedom yet made Mindanao as a backwater of the ancillary social and economic problems in Luzon.

From the time we won our independence from the U.S. to the time of Marcos, our political and economic elites facilitated the massive land consolidation and acquisition in Mindanao by foreign and local agri-business companies.

The HUKBALAHAPs in Central Luzon who surrendered to the government were given lands in Mindanao, easing out the Indigenous People, Muslims and early Christian settlers from Visayas.

Marcos used brutal ex-military men to threaten and pacify communities for palm oil companies to consolidate lands for his cronies in the CARAGA region and sugar plantations in Bukidnon, to mention a few.

 One should not wonder why Luzon Regions 1, 2 and 3, have much lower poverty rates compared to Mindanao, and more particularly, ARMM.  Land tenure and landholding sizes in these regions are more equitable than what you see in Mindanao. The political and economic elite of Mindanao, Christians from Luzon and Visayas, and some local Muslim leaders were instrumental in the perpetuation of the highly inequitable land ownership pattern in the islands.

 Our various land reform programs since former President Diosdado Macapagal were all of good intentions yet crafted by politicians whose interest and lenses were of their own mould.

Marcos’ PD 27, lauded as the law that emancipated tenants from the bondage of the soil, was a land reform program that worked mostly in Luzon and certain parts of Visayas, and many suspect was really meant to cower his political adversaries in Central Luzon and Panay Island.  Pres. Cory Aquino’s CARP law passed by a landlord dominated congress, while it encompassed all agricultural lands, neglected the indigenous and socio-cultural realities in Mindanao and the long historical injustice in this once called Land of Promise.  House minority leader Cong. Ronnie Zamora’s admission during the budget deliberations of the 15th congress of the weakness and lapses of the CARP program using as reference Joe Studwell’s book titled “How Asia Works” is a testament to this neglect.

 All these bred the kind of poverty one sees in Mindanao today.

 The cultural and faith dimension is just a consequence of this long historical injustice and poverty situation of Mindanao communities.  When one fails to find answers to poverty and injustice, it is easy to find meaning in one’s faith and religious beliefs.  Some take these meanings to the extreme.  The fundamentalists who carry arms, regardless of religion or faith, know no poverty or historical injustice tenets but only what they fanatically see and believe based on their religious doctrines.

 As a first step in taking a broader and more strategic view of the problems in Mindanao, we should all participate and put a stake in the BBL that is now a subject of consultations and debate. No matter which side of the fence we find ourselves, we need to ask the basic question – is this the answer to centuries of historical injustice and poverty amongst the Mindanaoans, the local indigenous peoples, Muslim and Christian communities?  And most importantly, do the local communities, mostly affected by poverty and conflict, understand what the law means for them? Were they thoroughly consulted and listened to, their views and aspirations included?

 Given the burning issues of our time, no matter how difficult, we need more than ever to pursue peace. This can only be achieved through sincere dialogue, mutual understanding, compassion, justice and forgiveness.  Islam and Christianity preach the same values, and the same traits are embedded in indigenous peoples’ cultures. 

Finally, local communities should take the center stage of this process. We should not leave things to the leaders alone or else, we will be doomed to repeat the same historical mistakes of five centuries.”

bethangsioco@gmail.com and @bethangsioco on Twitter

Treason has been committed, what should we do now?

by FRANCISCO S. TATAD

Until now docile and forgiving Filipinos have tended to look the other way as President B. S. Aquino 3rd routinely abused the Constitution. His crimes have piled up, but none of them had affected the nation as much as his ignoble and wretched response to the January 24 Maguindanao massacre of 44 members of the Philippine National Police Special Action Force (SAF) by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters.

He failed to show enough sympathy and respect for the martyred policemen and their families, but he used the occasion as a platform to glorify his dead parents at the expense of their old enemies.

The 44 victims were among the finest in our police force. Nearly half of them were 26 years old and younger. They were killed while on a special mission to bring in two well-known Muslim terrorists–the Malaysian bomb-maker Zulkifli bin Hiralias “Marwan,” and his Filipino confederate, Basit Usman, who carried a combined bounty of $6 million from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation. This was to be paid not to the apprehending peace officers but to the one who provided the information leading to the death or capture of the targets.

The Moros finished off the 44 after their support forces, which included a light armored brigade, deployed close to the area of operations, failed to respond to the calls for back-up, after they had been ordered to “stand down.”

Unanswered and unasked questions.

Many questions remain unanswered. Some have not even been asked yet.

Just exactly who was running “Operation Wolverine,” as the operation was reportedly called? Under the PNP operational chain of command, the line of authority flows directly from the President and Commander-in-Chief to his alter-ego, the Secretary of Interior and Local Government, and then to the PNP chief and the Regional District Commander. But neither DILG Secretary Mar Roxas nor acting PNP chief Leonardo Espina nor the Regional Commander knew of the operation.

While DILG Secretary Mar Roxas, Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin, acting Director General Espina and SAF Director Getulio Napenas were in Cotabato after the massacre, a visibly angry Roxas reportedly asked Napenas, “Who authorized the SAF mission?” The latter reportedly responded, “the President.” Instead of complaining to Aquino, a visibly angry Roxas sackedNapenas on the spot for failing to coordinate with him.

Indeed, instead of following the established operational chain of command, Aquino created his own chain of command, effectively bypassing Roxas, Espina, and the Regional Commander, choosing to involve Director-General Alan Purisima alone, even though he had just begun serving a six-month suspension order from the Ombudsman because of corruption charges.

How did this happen?

Purisima was made “Case Officer” of Oplan Wolverine long before he was suspended, and this was never revoked even after his suspension. This was an inexcusable lapse, but aside from his being known to be Aquino’s personal favorite, this seemed the only other reason for his continued involvement in the project.

Now, the SAF is merely a “force provider,” that’s all. Even though Napenas has “assumed responsibility for everything,” it seems clear he has simply decided to take the fall in the name of the service. There is no reason to accept his self-incriminating statement, nor to agree with Gazmin, who was himself out of the loop, that Napenas was the ground commander. Neither could Roxas hold him accountable for failing to inform or coordinate with him.

It was the President’s task to course things through Roxas, following the established chain of command. But if Aquino had chosen to bypass Roxas, it was not Napenas’ duty to inform Roxas. His sacking therefore seems a completely unjustified tantrum on Roxas’ part.

Organizing the mission
Now, how was the Wolverine force organized? With a total of 392 commandos involved, this means 50 teams of eight members each. How were they chosen? Who put them together? How was the ground commander chosen? Who chose him, and what was his name? Regardless of what has already appeared in the media, these questions deserve forthright answers.

Who ordered the stand-down?

But the most important question of all is this: Who gave the order for the support forces to stand down? And why was it given? It was not only a simple tactical decision that a commander makes whether to defend a position or withdraw when pinned down. It was a political decision of the highest import made by the highest authority in charge of the entire operation. It could not have come from a mere ground commander. And there was no higher authority involved here than the President himself.

At the time, Aquino was in Zamboanga with Teresita Deles, the presidential adviser on the peace process, reportedly monitoring the operation from an intelligence facility inside the Western Mindanao command. At the same time, a civilian team from Deles’ office had reportedly entered the MILF camp in the middle of the gun battle, to negotiate with the MILF camp a cessation of the hostilities that had broken out in violation of the ceasefire agreement between the MILF and the government.

There is reason to believe that Aquino did not want to endanger the team’s mission. At the same time he was mortally afraid that if the government tanks started rolling in with all of the support forces, a fullscale military engagement would ensue, and its first immediate casualty would be his “peace process” and the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (Babala), which seeks to create a new political entity for the MILF to replace the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, earlier created by law for the Moro National Liberation Front.

So the stand-down order was given, and the result is now history.

Aquino’s real role
Aquino has not had the courage to admit with candor his role in this tragedy. He had greater courage attacking his family’s dead enemies. He has pointed to Purisima as the one reportedly calling all the shots. This is unacceptable; it just doesn’t make sense. Given that Purisima remains suspended to this day, it is hardly credible that the SAF commander or any other officer or unit involved in the operation would take any order from him without any confirmation from higher authority.

More to the point, if the PNP were running the show, wouldn’t the funding have come from the PNP as well? But the PNP did not fund it, so who did? Malacañang? Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa’s anti-terrorism council? Or some foreign government?

Ignoble reaction
Aquino’s personal and official reaction to the whole tragedy shows it all. The tragedy occurred on Sunday; but Aquino managed to say something about it only on Wednesday evening. In his speech, he failed to condemn the massacre but talked more about the need to push the peace process and the Babala in Congress. Then he failed to show up at the Villamor Air Base to receive the bodies of the fallen policemen, choosing to attend instead a Japanese company function out of town. When he finally showed up at the necrological services for the policemen, he was one hour late, and he used the occasion to talk about himself and the murder of his father, the masterminds of which neither he nor his late mother had shown any eagerness to identify.

We cannot blame the bereaved families of the fallen and so many of our countrymen for being angry at this time. What has come out of Aquino’s mouth and the mouths of all his lackeys is all about the need to ram through the Babala in Congress as though the massacre never happened. But the massacre has exposed at least two things that have made the indecent haste to ram through the Babala doubly unacceptable.

Two realities
First of all, contrary to all assurances from the MILF, they have been harboring terrorists within their camp. The case of Marwan and Usman proves this beyond all doubt. Second, contrary to the propaganda that the BIFF is a breakaway faction of the MILF, and that they have nothing to do with each other, they are in fact working together. This is reminiscent of the situation in the 1990s when the MILF was presented as a mere breakaway faction of the MNLF, only to emerge as the main insurgent force after the MNLF had made peace with the government.

We have suffered enough betrayals in the past. Let us not suffer any more now. We could perhaps stand betrayal from the MILF, but we should not allow ourselves to be betrayed by our own President. Yet as far as millions of our countrymen today are concerned, this is what has happened in Maguindanao. For them, treason has been committed, and this cannot go unpunished. The people must act.

Message to Aquino
It is not easy to put into words what so many of our people feel about their self-indulgent and sanctimonious President. But after listening to his two unbelievably self-centered speeches after the massacre, Archbishop Ramon Arguelles of Lipa, a leading spiritual and moral light of the National Transformation Council, has shared with us the following message to Aquino:

“How can you lead us, much less comfort or console us, when you are buried in the quagmire that is your self?

“How can you listen to our cries when you are deafened by the wailings of your own fears and unforgiveness?

“How can you weep when your eyes mirror your hardened heart and tears can no longer fall from them?

“How can you pray when your soul bows to relativistic gods?

“How can you pursue peace when your path is hounded by your past that keeps pulling you back and pulling you down to dwell only in the comfort zone of your own ego?

“How can you stand tall when you have limited your myopic view to selfish gains?

“Cry, my fellow countrymen, for our fallen brothers… But cry more for ourselves if we are not moved to right the wrong and bring justice not only for our soldiers but for every Filipino unjustly served.

“Only then can true peace and progress be achieved.

“Let’s unite and rebuild this Blessed Land. Turn to God who will not fail His faithful ones.

“Remember Cory had 22 dead farmers at Mendiola. PNoy had 44 dead policemen in Maguindanao.”

fstatad@gmail.com

COUNTERING THE MIS-ENCOUNTER

By Dahli Aspillera

ARE you that smug know-all, phoning from the safety of your chair, telling media to tell the Commander-in-chief... All-out war on the MILF! Urging the Armed Forces of the Philippines to bomb, destroy, eliminate all those disgruntled, radical off-shoot groups such as the BIFF, whose territoriality is utmost. “All-out” requires the bombing the Mamasapano diaspora where those members are spread far and wide, housing with noncombatant relatives and friends in villages, farms, forests.

First, it is important that you learn from Radyo Patrol’s Edwin Vidal who returned to be interviewed, after days at the Mamasapano tragedy site; narrating what he head, seen, knows. 

***

Next month, many important people will be in Manila to ask each other what they can do about the unpredictability of climate and abuse of the environment. Ecology specialist-author Paul Kennedy explains the same topic in his book Preparing for the 21st Century. He writes that more than nine-tenths of the anticipated population increase by 2025 will be in the two/thirds world. 

Kennedy sees a problem in the fast breeding habits of the developing countries. The current Pope warned against over breeding too, but the Pope mandates the Romano Catholic Calendar Rhythm only; artificial contraceptives are mortal sin. The Pope has no way of knowing that involving the calendar does not work when a woman’s horny drunk, frustrated, jobless male is there, ready...now!

Kennedy writes on the problem in the developed Northern regions which put a much greater stress on the earth’s resources than do the two-thirds world or southern regions. The people of the developed world consume so much more. 

Kennedy: The U.S. had four percent of the population. Its annual oil consumption was a quarter of the world’s total production. The U.S. consumed 6.3 billion barrels of oil, 10 times that of Britain or Canada; hundreds of times that of most two-third world countries which make do with very little. Same imbalance in consumption is true of a range of other items, from paper to beef. 

He calculated that the average American baby represents twice the environmental damage of a Swedish child; three times that of an Italian; 13 times that of a Brazilian; 35 times that of an Indian; 280 (!) times that of an infant from Chad or Hait, because of the American child’s level of consumption throughout its life will be so much greater. This is not a comfortable statistic for anyone with a conscience, he adds.

Kennedy says if we do nothing to stabilize the world’s total population, curb the profligate use of energy, foodstuffs and other raw material, and control damage to the environment, then before very long, we will have so overpopulated and ransacked the earth that we will pay a heavy price for our collective neglect.

Kennedy vs artificial intelligence/robotics. A robot could then do nothing but tighten screws a thousand times faster than humans. Today, robots pilot planes; hold surgical knife in one hand and laser in the other for a successful appendectomy on a living human. 

Upon installation of 850 robots, where there were 340 employees now needs 16 workers in a Japan factory. With robots and weak labor unions compared to the U.S. AFL-CIO, Japan produces twice the number of cars for the same number of man-hours selling at half the price of U.S. cars.

What about countries where millions are without jobs, or work part-time? Where people are eager to be gainfully employed but the economy does not allow for decent employment? What for a robot?

Mahatma Gandhi: “If I could produce all of the country’s wants by means of the labor of 30,000 instead of 30 million, good. Provided that the 30 million are not rendered idle, unemployed and hungry.”

***

Dahliaspillera@yahoo.com 

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Aquino gave the go-signal for SAF raid

by RIGOBERTO D. TIGLAO

That was the claim of Police Director Getulio Napeñas, the recently-sacked head of the Philippine National Police Special Action Force, referring to his troops’ ill-fated operation to terminate Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir and his local cohort that led to the massacre of the 44 SAF troopers on January 25.

That was the report yesterday of Philippine Daily Inquirer’s Arlyn de la Cruz, a veteran journalist who has specialized in military and insurgency reportage for two decades. I’m surprised why that account was buried deep inside her report (SAF Chief: My men were still alive at noon but no reinforcements came”) and why the newspapers’ veteran editors didn’t make it their banner story for the day.

That important part of de la Cruz’ report reads:

“Who gave the go-signal?

This reporter asked him who knew about the Mamasapano operation.

Without hesitation he said: “The President, of course, because we had been working on this mission for a long time. As I told you, it was command commitment. We knew how dangerous Marwan was and that was the basis of this operation, to save the lives of the innocent people from the Bin Laden of Southeast Asia.”

A senior police official who asked not to be named told this reporter that Napeñas also admitted to Roxas that it was President Aquino who authorized “Oplan Wolverine,” the mission to get Marwan, a bomb expert from the Indonesia-based terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah.

Did the enormity of the debacle freeze him? Aquino at the short January 28 press conference on the SAF massacre.

“Eventually this will come out and Napeñas owes it to the families of the fallen 44 to admit that he just followed orders because that’s what we do—we follow orders,” the police official said.”

When he was asked after his speech January 28 to give a categorical ‘yes’ or ‘no’ on whether he gave the go-signal for the SAF’s Jan 25 operations, Aquino evaded the question.

“’Sir, can we proceed with the mission?’ I don’t think I was ever asked that question,” the President said. “Isn’t that a rhetorical question?”

That Aquino personally gave the go-ahead for the mission explains why the SAF head had the gall not to inform his immediate superior PNP OIC Leonardo Espina nor Interior Secretary Mar Roxas of a major operation involving 400 PNP SAF troopers going into a known Moro Islamic Liberation Front territory.

It also bolsters claims over the real reason why Aquino suddenly decided to go to Zamboanga City the day before the Jan 25 raid where he visited the site of a blast the day before, which killed one person and wounded two dozen others.

Waiting for the big event
According to that claim, Aquino wanted it to be a big event, an awesome photo-op when he would congratulate the SAF troops either in Zamboanga city or in Cotabato, after they had captured or killed their two terrorist targets.

Aquino himself in his speech Jan 28 disclosed the involvement of suspended PNP Director Alan Purisima, known to be very close to him since he had been his personal bodyguard since the late 1980s. “General Purisima was helping me understand the jargon. But he was involved up to the point in time, directly, that he was ordered suspended by the Ombudsman,” Aquino said.

Aquino obviously was careful to point out that Purisima’s involvement ended when he was suspended. However, there are reports that it was Purisima who was the SAF supervising “project officer’ for the raid, who even monitored the attack from his residence in Camp Crame.

It was Purisima who allegedly told Aquino that the SAF raid to capture the two terrorists would boost the president’s prestige in the way images of US President Obama monitoring his special forces’ raid to kill Osama bin Laden did.

Purisima, however, suddenly left the country Jan 30, with his office claiming he had to attend a meeting in Saipan of the Free and Accepted Masons fraternity, in which he has the rank of grandmaster.

What remains a puzzle involves the SAF chief Napeñas’ revelation, told to the Inquirer’s de la Cruz, that by 6 a.m., the SAF troopers were already calling for reinforcements. “I knew the Philippine Army in the area was ready to reinforce us at once,” Napeñas was quoted as saying. “”But they were also waiting for orders.”

It’s impossible for Napeñas not to have informed Purisima and Aquino that the SAF raid was in big, big trouble that they needed to be rescued.

The firefight lasted from sunrise to sundown, and there was plenty of time for reinforcements to save the SAF troops from being massacred.

Why didn’t he, Purisima, Espina, Roxas, and even Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gregorio Pio Catapang, order troops to save the trapped SAF troopers?

Aquino had not been asked in his short press conference on Jan 28 – or couldn’t be asked, as only three journalists were given the opportunity to ask questions – at what time he was informed of the SAF attack.

Did Aquino, because of some psychological malady, just cocoon himself, and pretend that the problem didn’t exist, just as he did in the Luneta hostage crisis in 2010?

We would be shamed as a nation if our leaders, especially the Congress, could not account for what happened, if they shirk the responsibility of calling the president himself to explain why 44 young PNP troopers had to die.

tiglao.manilatimes@gmail.com
FB: Rigoberto Tiglao

Let impartial body probe massacre

GOTCHA By Jarius Bondoc (The Philippine Star)

READERS’ REACT: to my past two columns on the Mamasapano massacre:

Horge Ramos, Caloocan City: “If, as President Noynoy Aquino said, he regularly was briefed on the police commando operation, then he knows who planned it. The Secretaries of Interior and Defense, the PNP (acting) and AFP chiefs weren’t in on the operation, but P-Noy was. Doesn’t that make him, as highest official involved, the most responsible for it? He apparently does not trust the four law and security officials. So why does he keep them? Suspended PNP chief Alan Purisima reportedly was involved in the operation. To what extent; did he – and P-Noy – violate the Ombudsman’s terms of suspension? P-Noy and commando chief Getulio Napeñas repeatedly said that to inform the Moro Islamic Liberation Front about the plan to get the terrorists would ruin it; meaning they didn’t trust them. So why talk peace with them at all? Napeñas’ breach of the command chain led to the slaughter of his men. Is he legally liable?”

A retired general: “Napeñas seems to have assembled trainee, not full commandos. Very faulty planning of extraction: his men ran out of ammo within hours; no request for military land backup and air cover.”

On the massacre’s effects on the ceasefire with the MILF and the Bangsamoro Basic Law pending in Congress:

 Arnel L.G.: “To add to your bull’s-eye questions: If the BBL passes, what’s the assurance that the expanded Muslim autonomous region does not become a haven of international terrorists? Will lawmen still find them if barred from operating within the Bangsamoro? Can we rely on the Bangsamoro police to arrest them? Will the Bangsamoro rulers turn over the money launderers, drug lords, kidnappers for ransom, and gun runners?”

Edwin Fajardo: “Peace with Islamist separatists is impossible. When the government signed a peace pact with the Moro National Liberation Front, an MNLF faction disagreed and formed the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. Now that there’s a separate pact with the MILF emerges yet a new faction, the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters.”

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The MILF is to investigate its massacre of 44 police commandos. Most Filipinos are unlikely to believe the results.

 The PNP’s own fact-finding could suffer similar incredibility. Despite the probers’ skills, built-in limitations cast doubts, like:

• Reports are that P-Noy and suspended PNP Dr. Gen. Purisima directly were involved in planning the botched operation. Can the probers – Dir. Edgardo Ingking, Dir. Benjamin Magalong, and Chief Supt. Catalino Rodriguez Jr. – pointedly question them? Purisima, who will reassume office in four months and stay for another five, can decide the future of their careers. More so CinC Aquino, till June 2016.

• Interior Sec. Mar Roxas and PNP acting chief Leonardo Espina belittled the incident as a “mis-encounter.” Again, can the three probers deviate from such terminology and pursue other leads that could mar the Aquino administration’s all-out peace with the separatists?

• Ingking and Magalong come from the Philippine Military Academy Class of 1982; Rodriguez, from Class ‘81. Seniority and mistah (classmate) loyalty are ingrained in PMA grads. Purisima and Espina are from Class ‘81; Dir. Getulio Napeñas of the decimated Special Action Force, Class ‘82. Will generals denigrate classmates and upperclassmen with whom they will consort till way past retirement? Compounding things is the reported involvement of three recently retired generals of the PNP and AFP in the planning.

• The SAF is criticized for not coordinating with the military, much more other PNP units, before the operation. That puts Ingking in an awkward position as fact-finder. For, he is with the PNP Directorate for Integrated Police Operations, directly in charge of west Mindanao – covering central Maguindanao where the battle ensued, General Santos City from where the commandos jumped off, to Zamboanga City far west where P-Noy was the whole of the previous day of the battle.

• Defense Sec. Voltaire Gazmin and AFP chief Gen. Gregorio Catapang were not in on the plan. Meanwhile, the SAF reportedly coordinated only at the last minute with Army units around the scene. These are the 45th Infantry Battalion right in Mamasapano, 601st Infantry Brigade in Awang town, and 1st Mechanized Brigade in Sharif Aguak seven kilometers away, all under the 6th Infantry Division. Other reports state that the Army did not help out because untold of the exact location of friendly and enemy forces. Yet they could have intervened. Under the government-MILF ceasefire are local AHJAGs (Ad-Hoc Joint Action Groups) consisting of military and MILF commanders who exchange mobile numbers. Their job is to immediately settle by phone ceasefire breaches. If all else fail, the Army member can warn his MILF counterpart with artillery fire to desist or else. No such thing happened. The PNP fact-finding has no authority to step into the Army’s turf to probe such lapse.

• Aside from the SAF’s 44 and MILF’s nine dead, 20 other bodies were recovered by the rebels and ceasefire civilian monitors. Five, including a pre-teen girl and boy, were confirmed residents around the fire zone. Among the rest could have been the SAF raiders’ local scouts. Would the fact-finding dwell on these “collateral damage”?

• Murmurs persist about the involvement of U.S. forces. It supposedly was not just to help airlift wounded and slain commandos, but to get Malaysian terror bomber Zulkifli “Marwan” bin Hir and Filipino henchman Basit Usman. Washington has posted $5 million and $2 million rewards for their capture. Would the PNP probers delve into that angle, and potentially mar both the MILF peace pact and the Visiting Forces Agreement?

If left unanswered, such questions would be stumbling blocks to rebuilding confidence between the protagonists. Peace will again be elusive. Better to form an independent probe body of eminent citizens who can get all parties, including the MILF, to participate.

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