Time on target OK’d at firing range

Call it sheer coincidence. Why is it every time there is a police operation that goes horribly wrong, the country’s Commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces is in a firing range for shooting practice?

There are at least two such instances when President Benigno “Noy”Aquino III was either in shooting exercise or firing competition with generals from both the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP).

And in both instances, President Aquino was with his rabidly loyal protégé, PNP director-general Alan Purisima, now resigned.

It was a bitter parting of ways with his erstwhile savior during the most bloody coup against the administration of his late mother, former President Corazon Aquino in August,1987 when Noy was nearly killed in ambush by military putschists. Purisima then was a member of the elite Presidential Security Group (PSG) who supposedly rescued a wounded Noy from the ambush scene in Arlegui St.

With a heavy heart, the President announced his acceptance of the resignation of Purisima following the January 25 bloody encounter when 44 troopers from the PNP’s elite Special Action Force (SAF) were killed in action in Mamasapano, Maguindanao. The 44 were part of the 392 SAF troopers deployed to serve the warrants of arrest against Malaysian terrorist bomber Zulkifli bin Abdul Hir, alias Marwan, and Basit Usman.

However, they encountered heavily armed enemies that included members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and its splinter group, the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) and private armed groups.

The MILF — that has existing peace and ceasefire agreements with the government – claimed it was a case of “mis-encounter” due to lack of coordination of the SAF operation with the joint committee on cessation of hostilities.

In last week’s Senate hearing on the Mamasapano incident, Purisima declared he held himself as the “accountable” official for this SAF operation turned tragic to explain his resignation.

Testifying before the ongoing congressional hearings on the Mamasapano incident, relieved SAF chief Getulio Napeñas was consistent in his narration of facts before they carried out their top secret mission to capture Marwan and Usman code-named “Operation Plan (or Oplan): Exodus.”

Under oath, Napeñas vividly recalled Purisima invited him to a meeting with President Aquino twice, shortly before and after the ex-PNP chief was suspended, for the update mission against Marwan and Usman.

Purisima was suspended for six months starting December 4 while under investigation on graft charges before the Office of the Ombudsman.

Based from his impression, Napeñas noted there was no direct order from President Aquino to proceed but neither was there any order to stop the operation. “During those two occasions, I was never given any guidance that the mission is a no go,” Napeñas recounted. For Napeñas, he construed it as “tacit approval.”

The second time he met the President, Napeñas said was last January 9 when Purisima took him to the PSG firing range. It was after this last briefing when Purisima buttonholed Napeñas with his controversial “advice” to the SAF chief. “Don’t tell this to the two others. I will take care of this with General Catapang,” Napeñas quoted Purisima as telling him.

Napeñas told the senators Purisima specifically referred to both Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Mar Roxas II and PNP Deputy Director-General Leonardo Espina who took over as officer-in-charge (OIC) after Purisima was suspended. Catapang, on the other hand, is the incumbent AFP chief of staff.

Since it was noisy due to the ongoing shooting exercises, Napeñas recalled, the meeting with the President lasted only about 20 minutes. They left the range but Purisima stayed on with the President – who apparently went back to the shooting range.

In both the Senate and House hearings on the same incident, Purisima and Napeñas admitted there was really no prior coordination made because the intelligence packet for Oplan Exodus called for “time on target.” This meant coordination with necessary parties like the AFP, the MILF and the truce committee would only come immediately upon launch on the ground. 

However, the time on target tactic proved to be the fatal flaw of SAF Oplan Exodus.

This time on target is now being blamed for the long hours it took before military commanders on the ground were able to send reinforcement and rescue mission to the trapped SAF troopers.

Ironically, when there was joint coordination between the PNP and the AFP on January 6, 2013 in Atimonan, Quezon, twelve people were killed in what was claimed a legitimate police operation against criminal elements. But subsequently it was ruled by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) as a case of rubout and thus led to the filing of multiple murder charges against the police and military troopers involved.

The victims included environmentalist Jun Lontok who was killed in this incident along with Victor Siman, a known jueteng and gambling lord in Southern Luzon. Two police officers moonlighting as security escorts and nine others were on board with Siman and Lontok in a two-vehicle convoy that was stopped at a checkpoint. “Siman was killed in the supposed shootout, but so were 12 others who turned out to be ‘collateral damage’ in the execution of Coplan Armado,” the NBI report stated.

Dubbed as “Coplan Armado,” combined elements from the PNP under the command of Supt. Hansel Marantan and Lt. Col. Monico Abang of the Philippine Army Special Forces carried out this mission to neutralize Siman.

On that day, President Aquino and Purisima were both in Camp Crame in Quezon City participating in the “Game of the Generals,” a traditional shooting competition among military generals and high-ranking police officers. President Aquino reportedly even outscored more than 100 military and police officers and won the competition.

As the approved execution of Oplan Exodus was done time on target at the firing range, the next PNP chief may come from any of these police generals. Until such time then, Espina continues to be in acting capacity.