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by David Dizon, ABS-CBNnews.com
Former President Fidel V. Ramos has some advice for President Aquino: accept responsibility for the Mamasapano mission as well as the possible filing of complaints.
In a press conference, Ramos said Aquino cannot shirk responsibility for the Mamasapano mission since he is the commander-in-chief of both the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces.
He dismissed the explanation of Palace spokesmen that there is no chain of command in the PNP, saying that Executive Order 226 institutionalized command responsibility in all government agencies.
Ramos said Aquino should just apologize for the Mamasapano mission, which saw 44 police commandos killed by armed groups.
“Yes, what is so difficult about that?” he said.
“Saying ‘I am sorry’ humbly and sincerely would probably do 90 percent of the job but since the hurt has gone so much deeper than what it was really originally, based on his absence from Villamor Airbase on the 29th of January when the 42 coffins first arrived, since then so much has happened in terms of I will call it recalcitrance of Malacanang,” he said.
The former president noted that Aquino might face charges for the Mamasapano incident.
Ramos said he also faced three Senate Blue Ribbon committee investigations after he stepped down from office in 1998.
“This is the future that any President must be able to confront manfully and truthfully. This is part of the job. When you enter any electoral contest for the highest position in the land, you better expect that the highest kinds of alleged crimes will be hit on you.”
The encounter in Mamasapano, Maguindanao on Jan 25 left 44 members of the elite Philippine National Police (PNP) Special Action Force (SAF) dead. The PNP-SAF troopers had been out to capture Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir alias “Marwan” and Filipino bomb maker Abdul Basit Usman. Both men had bounties on their heads placed by the U.S. government: US$5 million for Marwan and US$1 million for Usman.
The operation turned bloody when members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) said they had to fight back because the PNP-SAF had breached their territory. They alleged that they had not been informed about the operation to get Marwan and Usman. The hostile encounter lasted 11 hours. The MILF lost 18 of their fighters.
Both the government and the MILF have done probes on the Mamasapano encounter to determine what went wrong, as the incident threatens the Bangsamoro peace deal. It has since been revealed that the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) and even some armed civilians were also involved in the clash.
This story was re-published with permission from ABS-CBNnews.com.
