(UPDATE 4:21 P.M.) Acting Philippine National Police chief Leonardo Espina acknowledged Wednesday that the institution is in "crisis" and lamented being kept out of the loop on the eventually disastrous Jan. 25 anti-terrorist mission in Mamasapano, Maguindanao that led to the death of 44 police commandos.
"Kung nabulungan man lang sana ako na, 'Sir, ganito 'yan,' baka nakapagtanong pa (ako) kung ano ba ang plano, baka nabigyan pa ng (Had someone whispered to me, ‘Sir, it’s like this,’ maybe I could have asked what the plan was exactly and been given the) opportunity to review," he told reporters at the House of Representatives after meeting with members of the ad hoc committee discussing the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law.
The mission by the Special Action Force to get Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir, alias “Marwan,” proved costly, claiming the lives of 44 policemen, 18 Moro Islamic Liberation Front fighters and at least three civilians.
Soon after the incident, Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II and Espina admitted they were kept in the dark about the operation.
Suspicion shifted to President Benigno Aquino III and suspended PNP Director General Alan Purisima when Aquino, addressing the nation soon after the Mamasapano incident, complained that his advice for the SAF to ensure coordination with other police and military units was met with “very minimal compliance” and that Purisima had “explained the intricacies” of the operation.
Espina became acting PNP chief after Purisima was ordered suspended by the Office of the Ombudsman over graft charges.
Espina said the normal course would have been for him to review the SAF’s tactics “because this is a military area and I know that peace talks are being held …”
The acting PNP chief said he promised Representative Rufus Rodriguez, committee of the ad hoc committee, the PNP report on Mamasapano on or before February 9.
Rodriguez has also asked the Armed Forces of the Philippines for its own report.
The committee has been holding executive sessions on the BBL but, after Mamasapano, has skipped at least four provisions related to peace and security and the creation of a police force for the Bangsamoro entity.
Asked how he plans to raise the morale of the PNP again, Espina said: "I talked to my men last Monday and in order to set everything right, you have to level with them, you have to say the truth so that you'll be able to define the problem properly."
"Let's admit it, it is a crisis for the PNP," he said.
Espina said he told the police force to focus on their job, because "we can't stop working, because this may be taken advantage of by lawless elements" as he gave assurances that the fallen SAF commandos would get justice, "in whatever form it may be."
He reiterated that the first time he was informed of the operation was early in the morning of Jan. 25, when it was already taking place.
"There was coordination and information, but information after the fact, coordination after the fact," he added.
Asked if there were two chains of command at the PNP -- Purisima and himself -- Espina said: "As far as I'm concerned, at this very minute (since) December, I am the officer-in-charge."
AFP chief to PNP: We’ve to trust each other
Earlier on Wednesday, Armed Forces chief of staff General Gregorio Pio Catapang Jr. called on the PNP to seriously weigh the importance of brotherhood in the service, adding the Mamasapano debacle indicated a lack of trust between the police and military.
“For us in the AFP and PNP, we’ve to build back the trust and confidence that we’ve built and treasure for such a long a time,” Catapang said at a news briefing at Camp Aguinaldo.
Catapang described the carnage in Barangay Tukanalipao - described by the MILF as a "misencounter" but denounced as a "slaughter" by some quarters - as a wakeup call for everybody.
“I think the Mamasapano is an eye opener to us to look into the [proposed] BBL (Bangsamoro Basic Law) seriously, so no similar incident would happen again,” he said.
It was the lack of coordination, he insisted, that caused things to go awry in an otherwise important mission to get an international terrorist blamed for the deaths of hundreds around the world.
“That’s the price they [police] have to pay for not coordinating their operation with us,” Catapang said of the gory aftermath of the 12-hour firefight that led to the slaughter of the second batch of the 300-plus SAF contingent assigned to the mission.
Only one survived from that second batch, which was pinned down by heavy fire from both MILF and BIFF men, until they ran out of ammunition.
The BIFF led by Ameril Umbra Kato, former commander of the MILF 105th Base Command, is a faction of the MILF. The MILF leadership expelled Kato and his men from the organization for sabotaging the peace talks with the Aquino administration.
The military had been blamed for not coming to the policemen's rescue, but the AFP has insisted no timely coordination was made with them and by then, it was too late.
Catapang told reporters at the Wednesday briefing the military reached the exact spot in Tukanalipao close to 11 p.m. Sunday - and then was left with just retrieving bodies instead of extricating live commandos.
“We have to trust each other...[What happened] is something that we have to look into especially in the conduct of joint operation,” he added.
Some of the blame was heaped on the Army’s 6th Infantry Division led by Major General Edmundo Pangilinan for not doing anything to mitigate the situation- regardless of the ceasefire agreement with the MILF.
However, Catapang said, “they failed to coordinate their actions on the ground.”
One newspaper report quoted an unnamed military officer as saying the augmentation force even saw the rest of the 300-man SAF team "sitting on fences" or just idly waiting at a position that was a far 4 kms. from the cornfield where their 44 comrades were pinned down. The military source wondered why these SAF men also did not move to help extricate the commandos, or at least engage the rebels in combat to provide cover for the pinned-down unit to exit.
AFP, PNP should stop trading blame - Drilon
The trading of blame did not sit well with Senate President Franklin Drilon, who told reporters in an ambush interview,"They should shut up. I am asking them to shut up and speak only officially to the official bodies investigating this incident."
Reminded that there are many official bodies investigating, Drilon said, "Whatever it is, they should speak during those official investigations."
There is an impact of such needless public blame-trading on the nation, Drilon warned. "Given their positions in government, the tense situation is not helped any by such batuhan [exchange], among such officials."
Asked if he meant both the AFP and the PNP officials should shut up except to address the questions of the probe bodies, Drilon replied, "Yes . . . both of them."
http://www.interaksyon.com/article/104386/espina-says-pnp-in-crisis-laments-being-shut-out-catapang-rues-lack-of-trust-between-afp-pnp
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