SEVERAL administration allies in the House of Representatives on Saturday scored the critics of President Aquino in connection with the botched Mamasapano mission that killed 44 Special Action Force (SAF) commandos.
Liberal Party (LP) Secretary-General Mel Senen Sarmiento of Samar said Mr. Aquino is also a “victim” in the bloody Mamasapano raid, and should not be treated like he is one of the culprits in the clash.
Sarmiento said that some people want “to crucify him [the President], although it was very clear from the report of the Philippine National Police-Board of Inquiry [PNP-BOI] and the Senate that he was fed with the wrong information and had no actual control on what was happening on the ground, when PNP Special Action Force commandos executed the operation to neutralize Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan, and Basit Usman.”
“Some people are demanding accountability and some are even demanding for his resignation, allegedly because of command responsibility, but even the BOI and the Senate report cannot dispute the fact that the only involvement of the President on this Mamasapano incident was to give the order to execute the operation against Marwan and Usman,” Sarmiento said.
Sarmiento said the President “has had enough of the Mamasapano issue,” and now needs to focus on managing the country instead of devoting all his time and energy to explain his side on the Mamasapano operation.
LP Rep. Karlo Alexei Nograles of Davao, a member of the ad hoc committee on Bangsamoro basic law (BBL), said that President Aquino has already said his piece on the Mamasapano incident, and it is time for the nation to move on, instead of trying to “further squeeze blood from stone.”
Nograles added that Mr. Aquino’s recent speech during the graduation rites of the PNP Academy should be the last of him explaining his role in the police raid that led to the death of 44 SAF commandos.
“I think that this should be the end of it. The President has spoken far too much about what he knows and about his limited involvement in the encounter in Mamasapano. He has opened himself up to the Filipino people and, in the spirit of transparency and honesty has, said all there is that he can really say about it. All his statements appear to be consistent,” Nograles said.
Earlier, Party-list Rep. Neri Colmenares of Bayan Muna said that Committee on Public Order and Safety Chairman and United Negros Alliance Rep. Jeffrey Ferrer of Negros Occidental and Committee on Peace, Unity and Reconciliation Chairman and LP Rep. Jim Hataman-Salliman of Basilan should invite President Aquino on their joint investigation on the ill-fated Mamasapano mission on April 7 and 8.
Colmenares, a senior deputy minority leader, said that there are many inconsistencies in the Mamasapano incident that only President Aquino can answer.
Ulterior motive
National Unity Party Rep. Elpidio Barzaga Jr. of Cavite, meanwhile, said the opposition’s demand for Mr. Aquino’s apology over the Mamasapano incident has exposed their ulterior motive, which is to destroy the administration using the death of 44 SAF members.
“Clearly, there’s malice behind this demand for apology. It’s not constructive, it’s clearly destructive,” Barzaga said.
The opposition, along with militant lawmakers from the minority bloc, has been relentlessly demanding that the President apologize for his role in Operation Exodus.
Barzaga, a veteran lawyer, said their demand for apology is not only malicious, but also misplaced because the issue hurled against the President is not even graft-related.
He said it seems that those in the forefront of the calls for President Aquino’s apology and even resignation were the ones “who have been affected, if not targeted, by this administration’s efforts against corruption.”
The President has said his order to former PNP chief Alan Purisima and former SAF chief Director Getulio Napeñas to inform other officials about Operation Exodus, including PNP Officer in Charge Deputy Director General Leonardo Espina, fell on deaf ears, he said.
He added that Mr. Aquino has also said he instructed the generals to coordinate the operation with the military, but this, too, was violated.
Barzaga also joined fellow administration allies in calling for a closure on the issues surrounding the President’s role in the incident.
“They [critics] are beating a dead horse. That issue has already been stretched too far, and this is as far as they can go because the people know that they have an honest and trustworthy leader in President Aquino,” he said.
LP Rep. Jerry Trenas of Iloilo said that he felt “the intense sadness and sense of frustration of President Aquino when he talked about his failure to reverse the situation in Mamasapano, although this could have only been possible if he was given the right information during the firefight.”
“Even more difficult is that fact that you feel betrayed by the very same people whom you really trusted to lift him up. Getting over the pains of the Mamasapano is also hardest for the president. It is unfair for some people to even insinuate that Pnoy and unfeeling and unsympathetic,” Trenas said.
Trenas added that the President sounded really disappointed when he said he would bring this tragedy with him until his final day but it would be really too much for him to go beyond his appeal for understanding.