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This is going to get even uglier.
“At the Senate hearing on Tuesday, Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin and Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II said that despite being under suspension, it was resigned Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Alan Purisima who was clearly in charge of the disastrous January 25 Special Action Force operation in Mamasapano, Maguindanao,” reports InterAksyon.com.
The report noted: “The two were replying to Senator Loren Legarda’s question as to who they believed was the overall commander of the operation to get Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir, alias ‘Marwan.'”
Roxas, as the report indicated, also named sacked Special Action Force (SAF) commander Getulio Napeñas as one of those responsible for the operation’s outcome. Roxas explained that his opinion was based on the fact that Napeñas exhibited “an overt effort” to keep the information about the operation away from the officer-in-charge of the) PNP and the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG).
The report recalled that Roxas was referring to “Purisima’s acknowledged ‘advice’ to Napenas on January 9, after their last briefing on the mission to President Benigno Aquino III, not to inform Roxas and acting PNP chief Leonardo Espina until ‘time on target,’ or when the SAF was already undertaking the 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. It has since been revealed that the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) and even some armed civilians were also involved in the clash.
Photo: News clip
