No ‘Stand down’ order from P-Noy

THERE was no “Stand down” order by President Noynoy Aquino or some other authority to hold back the military from going to the succor of PNP Special Action Force commandos slaughtered on Jan. 25 last year by Moro bands in a barangay in Mamasapano, Maguindanao.

That was the unanimous response of military and police top brass to a question posed to them in yesterday’s reopening of the inquiry by the Senate committee on public order on the Mamasapano massacre of 44 SAF elite officers.

Sen. Sonny Angara asked the military and police officers present to disclose if they were aware of or had received such a “Stand down” order. Each of them either remained silent or said there was no such order.

Senate Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile, who had asked for the new hearing, stood pat on his theory that President Aquino was deeply involved in the planning and execution of Oplan Exodus that was launched Jan. 25 to neutralize high value terrorists hiding in Mamasapano.

But Enrile, former defense minister during the Marcos martial rule, failed to produce proof that President Aquino ordered the armed forces to “stand down” although they had units nearby ready to spring into action.

In yesterday’s hearing, the military piled on testimony to shift blame for the carnage on former SAF chief Getulio Napeñas, the Exodus commander who together with then suspended PNP chief Alan Purisima briefed the President on Jan. 9 last year and secured his approval of the operation.

Enrile bewailed President Aquino’s having compartmented (compartmentalized) Exodus except for his friend Purisima, even to the exclusion of then Interior Secretary Mar Roxas and then PNP officer in charge (after Purisima’s suspension) Leonardo Espina.

Asked by the senator if the President compartmentalized Exodus, Napeñas said “Yes.” The officer added that the Commander-in-Chief approved the plan after he was briefed on it in Malacañang.

“When I say ‘compartmented’ Oplan Exodus,” Enrile said, “I mean that President Aquino intentionally, deliberately, and actually confined and arrogated unto himself and Purisima full knowledge, command and control, and strategic decisions over Oplan Exodus.”

Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin and former acting PNP chief Espina told the Senate again they were not informed of Exodus beforehand. Former AFP chief Gregorio Pio Catapang made the same claim.

Senate President Franklin Drilon defended President Aquino, pointing out that it was Napeñas who compartmentalized Exodus. He said the then SAF commander ignored the President’s instruction to coordinate with the armed forces. (But Napeñas did not coordinate, because, he said, the AFP had been “compromised.”)

• US role in Oplan Exodus questioned

ENRILE questioned in the hearing the involvement of United States personnel in the planning, execution and follow-through of Oplan Exodus, which he said was a local police operation not covered by the Phl-US Visiting Forces Agreement.

“This has to be looked into,” Enrile said. “To my recollection, the VFA deals with military only. It doesn’t cover police operations which are actually enforcing criminal laws handled by a police organization and these criminal laws are territorial with a few exceptions.”

Napeñas disclosed that through the Joint Special Operations Task Force-Philippines (JSOTF-P) based in Zamboanga City, the US government helped SAF in terms of “real-time intelligence support, training, equipment, humanitarian support through medical evacuation and investigation.”

He cited the giving to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation of the finger of Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir alias Marwan, main target of Exodus, for the FBI to help match his DNA with that of his brother detained in California. He said the finger was at that time starting to smell.

Are any of the American civilians in the JSOTF-P from the Central Intelligence Agency? Napeñas said the intelligence members of the joint task force providing real-time monitoring could be from the CIA but that “CIA” was never mentioned.

Napeñas explained that since the VFA targets terrorism, the US has been helping SAF with its counter-terrorism operations.

He recalled again that there were drones hovering over Mamasapano during the operation that were presumably American. With that aerial surveillance, Napeñas said they could see at their command post the location and movement of the SAF and the Moro forces.

• Bongbong, Deles own ‘coverup’ recording

FOR A WHILE, there was speculation the hearing would admit a reported audio recording of a conversation between a “high government official” and a lawmaker on the idea of covering up the Mamasapano massacre so as not to jeopardize the Bangsamoro autonomy bill.

The Senate committee chaired by Sen. Grace Poe Llamanzares did not subpoena the recording. But Sen. Bongbong Marcos beat the gun by confirming that the recording was that of his conversation with Secretary Teresita Deles of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process.

He said Deles met him after the Mamasapano incident and that their conversation happened in the Senate with at least 50 people in the room. But he confessed he did not know how the unauthorized recording was done.

The record was disclosed by retired police Chief Supt. Diosdado Valeroso, who said he had a digital copy. Marcos and Deles denied that they were plotting a whitewash or a coverup when they talked.

Mamasapano involved forces of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the other party with which Malacañang – through the OPAPP -- signed an agreement for the creation of a Bangsamoro to replace the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. Marcos chairs the committee studying it.

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