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This question comes from the staff of InterAksyon.com. Our comment: We’re sure the Palace has some sort of explanation for this…or something. For the record, we’re no longer sure about who to believe.
Anyway, InterAksyon.com report said, “Contrary to what his subalterns claimed before congressional probers, President Benigno Aquino III knew, starting early morning of Jan. 25, what had happened to Oplan Exodus, the antiterrorist mission that led to the deaths of 44 police commandos.”
The report noted: “In hearings at the House on Wednesday and at the Senate on Thursday, February 12, various officials declined to give the precise moment at which Mr. Aquino first learned that something horribly wrong had befallen the mission, and there were many SAF casualties. At one point, Sec. Mar Roxas said they didn’t brief him on Mamasapano at once because he was getting briefings on the aftermath of the previous day’s Zamboanga bombing.”
The report went on to say that “the only one who gave the slightest idea of timing was Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom) chief Rusty Guerrero, who said the President was briefed at about 5 p.m.” on that fateful day.
However, as the repory indicated, “the time at which information on the controversial operation in Mamasapano, Maguindanao first reached him was volunteered by the President himself in his ‘pep talk’ before SAF members early morning of Jan. 30, as shown in the RTVM video provided to news organizations.”
The report intructs viewers: “Here, in Mr. Aquino’s own words (pertinent portion starts at 5:25 of the video timer) before SAF members last Jan. 30, is the time he got wind of what was happening in Mamasapano.”
In the video, Aquino says that he was informed about what happened in the “Marwan operation” in the morning. His exact words: “Umaga pa lang, sinabihan na ako kung ano ang naging resulta nung kay Marwan (It was still early when I was told about the result of the Marwan operation).”
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 are currently doing probes on the Mamsapano encounter to determine what went wrong, as the incident threatens the Bangsamoro peace deal.
