Aquino speaks out two years too late
This week, the Rotary Club of Cebu (Mother) will be celebrating its 85th year of non-stop service to the Cebuano community. Paul Harris in Chicago, Illinois, founded the first Rotary Club on Feb. 23, 1905, and the Rotary Club of Manila was founded in 1919. In 1932, the Rotary Club of Cebu was born and one of its incorporators was my maternal grandfather, Capt. Valeriano Jamala Segura (Yes, I'm named after him). My paternal grandfather Don Jose Avila was also one of its first members and in fact the oldest photograph that the Rotary Club of Cebu has in its possession was given to the club by the Avila family.
I first joined the Rotary Club of Cebu in 1980 right after my father, who was a member of the club, passed away. Back then, it was Frank Benedicto who was president when I joined the club and I was the youngest member of a club that was filled with my father's friends who would stop me when I addressed them as "tito." Because of my kidney problem, I have not been attending our meetings in the Rotary Club forcing me to resign. But the club recognized the reality that I was one of a handful of third-generation Rotarians from the same club, so I was bestowed the status of honorary member, an honor for me.
So to help celebrate this banner year with the Rotary Club of Cebu, we have with us President Bing Martinez and Director Walther Cang to explain to us their programs for the year. So watch this interesting show on the Rotary Club of Cebu (Mother) on SkyCable's channel 53 at 8 p.m. with replays on Wednesday and Saturday same time and channel. We also have replays on MyTV's channel 30 at 9 p.m. Monday and at 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. on Wednesday and Friday.
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Last Friday at around 5 p.m. as I turned on my TV to CNN Philippines, I was taken aback by former president Benigno "PNoy" Aquino who by his lonesome was giving a PowerPoint presentation on what happened on that fateful day in January 25, 2016 in a police operation dubbed Oplan Exodus that took place in Tukanalipao, Mamasapano, Maguindanao, intended to capture or kill Malaysian terrorist and bomb maker Zulkifi Abdir a.k.a. "Marwan" but it resulted in disaster when 44 Special Action Force troopers were slain allegedly by Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters.
While he explained the whys and wheres of Oplan Exodus, it made me wonder why he explained this incident two years too late. In my book right after the incident happened, where we saw video footage of how the Muslim terrorists killed the SAF troopers, everyone was asking for an explanation, especially from Aquino, who was reportedly at the drone center in Zamboanga City. The other question I posed in my Facebook page was why Aquino refused to meet the fallen 44 SAF when their bodies arrived in Villamor Air Base.
Of course we know too well that suddenly the former president came up with that detailed explanation using the television medium in order to clear his name because finally the Office of the Ombudsman filed charges against him for culpable violation of our laws in the Mamasapano massacre. But I have always believed that the Office of the Ombudsman who immediately cleared the president a month after this incident has filed a case in order to finally clear his name of any culpability in this incident.
In short, the former president's presentation last Friday triggered more questions than answers about his role in the Mamasapano incident. He insists that the truth shall set him free, which to my mind is a motherhood statement. So since he is allegedly telling the truth, we would like to know what happened to the video footage taken when the carnage took place. There were also video messages and conversations that recorded the event, whatever happened to these?
Aquino bewails the reality that the Armed Forces of the Philippines did not support the PNP operation, but I played golf with a Marine commander a year ago who told me that they were not told about the operation in Mamasapano. So did Aquino really tell us the truth this time?
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