Lost in coordination

The more tales are told, the more people get stuck in the web of lies being spun to prevent the truth from coming out. But as the saying goes, dead men tell no tales. After given burial honors, the last of the 44 Special Action Force (SAF) troopers from the Philippine National Police (PNP) slain during the bloody Jan. 25 assault in Mamasapano, Maguindanao has been laid to rest.

The 44 slain SAF troopers were part of the 392 men sent on a “top secret mission” to capture two of the most wanted terrorist bombers – Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan, and Basit Usman. In the wee hours of that fateful day, the SAF assault team entered a known stronghold of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) that has an existing peace and ceasefire agreement with the government.

The MILF has not apologized but claimed its men merely fought back in self-defense of the community. MILF chief peace negotiator Mohagher Iqbal insisted the incident was a “mis-encounter” between the PNP-SAF and the 105th Base Command of the MILF. In fact, Iqbal admitted the MILF lost 18 fighters and 14 comrades were wounded due to lack of coordination with them about the SAF operation.

Breaking his silence more than 72 hours after the incident, President Aquino made a live telecast address to the nation about his strict instructions to SAF commanders on the ground “to coordinate” with all concerned.

Based on what President Aquino termed as “actionable intelligence,” the SAF troopers raided the place to serve the warrants of arrest against Marwan and Usman. The SAF troopers supposedly killed Marwan but could not bring out his body when met by armed men who blocked their way. Usman escaped.

In the same address, President Aquino announced his order to Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Mar Roxas II to constitute a Board of Inquiry (BOI) to look into what went wrong in the Mamasapano incident that resulted in heavy casualties on the government side. The Commander-in-chief also ordered the immediate relief of SAF commander Director Getulio Napeñas.

But the President’s address came too late after leaks in media exposed the participation of suspended PNP chief Alan Purisima as the one directing SAF operations in Mamasapano. The President admitted he dealt directly with Purisima about the operation to capture Marwan.

But the President hastily clarified this was done before the erstwhile PNP chief was suspended in December last year. Purisima has since been replaced by Director Leonardo Espina as “acting” PNP chief. The President also reluctantly admitted that even Roxas and Espina were kept out of the loop on the SAF operations against Marwan.

Ironically, President Aquino was together with Roxas, Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin, Budget Secretary Florencio Abad, and Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman in Zamboanga City purportedly to attend to the victims of the bombing there that killed two people. But as media leaks later claimed, the President was there to be nearby so that he could immediately fly to Maguindanao if the operation to capture Marwan succeeds. Sadly, however, the outcome proved to have a high price.

A few days later, even President Aquino’s own head of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) Secretary Teresita Deles admitted in public that there was no coordination done also with them before this SAF operation was launched. Deles said she, too, got to know about the SAF operation only later that night of Jan. 25.

Under the government’s peace agreement with the MILF signed in March 2013, both sides agreed to ceasefire guidelines to prevent any truce violations. Both sides agreed to put up a joint Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities (CCCH) to prevent any truce violations that could endanger the ongoing peace process in Mindanao.

Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief of staff Gen. Gregorio Catapang Jr. also complained the SAF operation was not coordinated with the military commanders in the area. They got too late and too little information to bring in the heavy artillery and back-up forces to the trapped SAF troopers. Catapang rued even “coordinates” of the SAF troopers’ location to help save them could not be relayed to them. 

As details of this “top secret mission” are now coming out slowly in the light, Roxas could only commiserate with the SAF troopers at Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan during his own pep talk with them last Sunday. Roxas pointed to this “lack of coordination” as the culprit for the death of their 44 comrades in their “top secret mission.”

Roxas is not exactly unfamiliar with the antics of Purisima who reports directly to President Aquino and would always bypass him in the chain of command. Yesterday, Purisima again apparently bypassed Roxas with the resignation letter that the suspended PNP chief directly submitted to President Aquino.

At least, Purisima finally found the courage to do so now that their Commander-in-chief’s leadership is scored from all quarters, including allies and supporters.

Amid this setback, a SAF trooper who survived the counter-attack on them at Mamasapano was able to bring back one of Marwan’s fingers and the photo they took of their dead quarry. The finger was immediately sent to the US for DNA testing by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Marwan is in the FBI’s list of most wanted international terrorists with a $5-million bounty over his head.

The tragic mission hopefully will turn out positive and vindicate the 44 fallen SAF troopers. This, after FBI initially confirmed the other day that indeed the finger of unknown individual submitted to the agency’s DNA laboratory matched with Marwan’s brother Rahmat who is jailed in a US facility for terrorists and other high-risk security detainees.

The BOI has started conducting this internal investigation into operational lapses that resulted in heavy casualties to the SAF assault team. As of this writing, the PNP’s BOI so far gathered sworn testimonies from the 15 wounded SAF operatives and the rest of the 392 SAF troopers involved in that incident who are the living witnesses to this mis-adventure.

The mission was accomplished but the battle was lost to coordination.