Cabinet members to attend Mamasapano probe

MANILA, Philippines - Cabinet members will attend the reopening of the investigation into the Mamasapano incident upon invitation of the Senate, Malacañang said yesterday.

Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. also gave assurance that the Cabinet officials invited would “reply to all pertinent questions that may be asked at the hearing in the interest of transparency and public accountability.”

Coloma, Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr., Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin, National Security Adviser Cesar Garcia and former interior secretary Manuel Roxas II were invited to attend the Senate reinvestigation on the Mamasapano incident at 10 a.m. on Jan. 27.

Military and police officials, among them former Special Action Force (SAF) director Getulio Napeñas, were also invited to the hearing.

Coloma, however, said he was not privy to the full list of government officials invited by the Senate and would not guarantee if all of them could attend.

“I have not had the opportunity to inquire from the invitees themselves. Let me emphasize that government has always been open and forthright in addressing all concerns pertaining to the Mamasapano incident,” Coloma said.

Sen. Grace Poe, chairperson of the committee on public order and dangerous drugs, said the reopening of the probe was made following the claims of Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile that he had evidence and testimonies that President Aquino was directly involved in the operation.

Enrile had said he has information different from the details established during the first Senate hearings. He said he gathered new evidence from some survivors, whom he met during his confinement in the PNP General Hospital at Camp Crame, Quezon City.

Enrile was placed under hospital arrest on graft charges for the pork barrel scam pending before the Office of the Ombudsman.

Enrile also alleged the President did not do anything to save the SAF police commandos when they figured in a firefight with a large group of Muslim rebels and armed villagers.

According to Sen. Sergio Osmeña III, Enrile wants to see Aquino “inside the stockade.”

Malacañang maintained Aquino did everything to ensure that the SAF operatives would not be put in harm’s way and that the President had told the nation whatever he knew about the operation.

Aquino said Enrile’s move could be politically motivated.

Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr., for his part, asked the Poe committee to invite former justice secretary Leila de Lima and National Bureau of Investigation director Virgilio Mendez to the hearing on Jan. 27.

“Their presence during the hearing is extremely important as they can inform the committee of the status of the cases involving the 44 fallen members of the Special Action Force,” Marcos said.

Marcos also believed Napeñas would be a credible witness in the Senate reinvestigation. “I think he is the person best placed in the operation to tell us what really happened. Basically, if you’re asking if he has credibility, I believe so,” he said. 

Marcos added he shares Enrile’s opinion that there is a need to find out why there was poor coordination at the time the SAF troopers were asking for reinforcement after being pinned down by the rebels.

Marcos also defended Enrile from criticisms that he is raising a howl on the Mamasapano encounter due to political vendetta.

“Vendetta? The man is just doing his job. And that’s why he moved for the reopening because he thought he was not given the chance to play his role as a senator because he was detained at that time,” he said.

Marcos said despite government guarantees to give justice to the victims and their families, no case has been filed in court to prosecute the suspects almost a year after the incident.

“The families of the SAF 44 do not ask anything from the government except for justice for their loved ones,” Marcos said.

Marcos added the reopening of the Mamasapano investigation would clarify reports that some of the widows of the fallen SAF 44 have not yet received the promised aid from the government.

The Philippine National Police (PNP) had denied the allegations and released a report detailing the assistance they have given to the families of the SAF 44.

According to the PNP, the SAF 44 families and survivors had already received a sizeable amount from the government and private sector donors.

Assurance

Congressmen led by Negros Occidental Rep. Jeffrey Ferrer yesterday revealed that P38 million was allotted in the 2016 national budget as financial assistance to the families of the fallen SAF 44.

Ferrer, chairman of the public order and safety committee of the House of Representatives that also investigated the Mamasapano incident, said the P38 million for SAF 44 survivors is included in the P88.5-billion PNP budget.

It will be under the care of the PNP central office in Camp Crame, Quezon City, he said.

“Whether it is an allotment, assistance or benefit, the amount can be a lot of help to the SAF survivors and families of the Fallen 44,” Ferrer said.

Cebu Rep. Gwendolyn Garcia, a member of the committee, said the families of the Fallen 44 and SAF survivors “deserve all the support from the national government.”

Almost 400 police commandos had swooped down before dawn in the operation to capture Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan, and local confederate Basit Usman in the remote village of Mamasapano in Maguindanao on Jan. 25.

But after killing Marwan, the SAF commandos were ambushed by heavily armed Muslim rebels and villagers.

A total of 44 policemen were killed and 12 others were wounded in the attack. Eighteen rebels and five civilians were also killed.

The mission went haywire after the police operatives supposedly failed to coordinate properly with the military.

Both the Senate and the PNP’s Board of Inquiry reports found the President ultimately responsible for the incident, but Aquino disputed these, saying his side of the story must also be considered. – With Jess Diaz, Christina Mendez, Perseus Echeminada, John Unson, Mayen Jaymalin