The Joint Committee report, promulgated by Senator Grace Poe, has delivered the final blow to the President's series of buck-passing, and has finally released in official document, what all the Filipinos have always suspected of and believed in. The President is ultimately responsible, as the highest ranking official who approved, supervised directly, and monitored the Oplan Exodus, and should own up the debacle ending in the carnage of 44 fallen SAF troopers. He is responsible for the outcome of the Mamasapano encounter.
Above all, it is the President who allowed suspended PNP Chief, General Alan L. Purisima to continue taking command in the execution of the Oplan Exodus, despite knowing the general's suspension from the service as early as December 4, 2014. The President defied the Ombudsman's order and violated the rule of law. He still met Generals Purisima and G. Napeñas on January 9, 2015 in the Presidential Bahay Pangarap in order to give his final blessings to the execution of the highly confidential mission.
Even Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. was reported to have declared that President PNoy committed a lapse of judgment in allowing a suspended public official to perform an official function. This was the most diplomatic, the most mild, and the most ''politically correct'' statement. But, in effect, even that statement also means that PNoy was responsible. The BOI report was too careful as not to pinpoint the President's complexity. But the Senate report is more forthright, more candid and more honest, albeit polite to Malacañan.
By way of summary, the Senate report included the following categorical findings and conclusions. First, the MILF tale of ''self-defense'' is untenable. Out of the 44 fallen troopers, 26 were shot in the head at close range. The 55th SAF company was stationary in the cornfield. Thus, they were not attacking. They were being surrounded and attacked from all directions. It was not a mis-encounter. It was a mass murder. And the MILF assailants must be arrested, charged, and prosecuted. His will be the final acid test of the MILF. Will they surrender their guilty men?
Then, the report pronounced Purisima, by the strength of evidence, most probably guilty criminally and administratively for usurpation of public functions. Napeñas should also be charged of grave misconduct for following the command of a suspended superior, and for gross incompetence in executing the Oplan Exodus. The report also said that PNoy, Secretaries Mar Roxas and Voltaire Gazmin as well as General Catapang could have acted with more diligence on that fateful day because early in the morning, the President was already informed of the operation.
The cat is finally out of the hat of the magician, who must have tried to hoodwink us into believing that the President has no responsibility at all. The truth comes out after 5 public hearings, 5 executive sessions, 73 hours of deliberations after 37 witnesses testified, and identified 4,300 documents. With these overwhelming evidence, will the President finally say sorry to the widows, orphans of the 44 victims, and to the rest of the people? Or, should he insist on the old unreliable art of finger-pointing ? Your move, Mr. President.