Need-to-know

How high up did the need-to-know go?

Getulio Napeñas, who has been sacked as chief of the police Special Action Force (SAF), obviously had to know. But he said he texted the operation to get two top terrorists to the officer-in-charge of the Philippine National Police (PNP), Deputy Director General Leonardo Espina.

Last night Espina insisted that he was kept out of the loop along with Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas, whose department has supervision over the PNP.  Espina said he received Napeñas’ text only “after the fact,” two hours after the operation was underway.

President Aquino would only let on that there was no direct order from him to proceed. He admitted receiving regular briefings about the manhunt starting last May from his favorite cop, PNP chief Alan Purisima, whom he said had the most extensive knowledge about wanted terrorists “Marwan” or Zulkifli bin Hir and Basit Usman.

Who gave the green light has become an issue because of reports that Purisima was the one in charge, from planning to implementation. Nothing wrong with this, except that Purisima is supposed to be serving a six-month suspension in connection with a graft case.

P-Noy took pains to explain the atrocities attributed to both Marwan and Usman, of their 10 outstanding arrest warrants and the duty of any lawman to enforce the arrest.

At one point during P-Noy’s nationally televised address the other night, I thought he would identify Purisima as the one in charge, explain that no one was more qualified to direct the manhunt and then plead for public understanding.

But everyone in this mess has been less than forthcoming, from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and its description of the clashes as a “misencounter” (echoed by Roxas) to the pronouncements of P-Noy. The MILF is playing us for a fool, and P-Noy is evading accusations that he has violated a suspension order of the Office of the Ombudsman.

Lies make weak foundations for peace.

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Compounding P-Noy’s problems is his lack of appetite for attending wakes, especially of strangers.

The presence of the “father of this country” (his words) would have been appreciated at Villamor Air Base yesterday for the arrival of the caskets bearing the bullet-riddled, mutilated remains of 42 men he had described as “without question, heroes.”

P-Noy is known to have accepted grooming advice from stylists. He can use an adviser on empathy. It was missing in Tacloban City shortly after Super Typhoon Yolanda; it was missing during the wake for slain transgender Jennifer Laude. The commander-in-chief was conspicuously absent at the Villamor rites yesterday.

Other heads of government are keenly aware of their role as mourner-in-chief. Consider the reaction of French President Francois Hollande following the terror attacks on satirical publication Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket, which left 17 people dead in Paris. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose country did not lose citizens in the attack, even flew to Paris to join a “unity march” against extremism. So did Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; four Jews were among the fatalities.

US President Barack Obama reportedly regretted failing to make it to the unity march. But we’ve seen many times how the Americans – led by whoever is president – know how to pay tribute to their fallen soldiers, cops, firemen and anyone else who loses his or her life for the USA.

Yesterday Palace officials stressed that P-Noy’s absence at Villamor did not constitute a snub, and that he would be at the common necrological rites before the victims are taken by their families for burial in different parts of the country.

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Roxas probably suspected what everyone else did: that he was deliberately kept out of the loop because the guy who called the shots in the operation, as people read between the lines in P-Noy’s speech, was Purisima, with whom Roxas is widely known to be feuding.

Where the story gets murky is whether P-Noy himself or Purisima green-lighted the SAF operation.

“Matagal na yan may go-ahead,” P-Noy said. “ ‘Sir, can we proceed with the operation?’ – I don’t think I was ever asked that question.”

P-Noy was also not asked what he was doing in Zamboanga City throughout most of Sunday, skipping even the family gathering at the Manila Memorial Cemetery to commemorate the death anniversary of his mother Corazon.

 A report said P-Noy was waiting for Marwan, Usman or both to be presented to him by the SAF and Purisima, who needs a spectacular feat to deserve reinstatement in his post amid corruption scandals.

The SAF team that went after the two terrorists, we’ve been told by security officials, was composed of nearly 400 men. That kind of operation needs clearance from someone higher than the SAF commander.

From what P-Noy said in his televised address to the nation, it looked like the SAF chief ’s sin was his “very minimal compliance” with the standing order from the commander-in-chief for “proper, sufficient and timely” coordination with the Armed Forces of the Philippines in going after the two terrorists.

In this issue the AFP has also not been forthcoming. Accused of refusing to lend a hand to the beleaguered SAF men, the AFP said it was informed too late of the operation. Those long hours during which the cops were being butchered, the AFP said, did not give them enough time to send military reinforcements.

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The attitude of the administration indicates panic that the Bangsamoro Basic Law, if not the peace process itself – or more accurately, the BBL’s passage under P-Noy’s watch – may be doomed by the attack in Maguindanao.

The attack has been blamed by P-Noy himself on combined elements of the MILF, its supposed breakaway group the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters and a “private armed group.” It has already led to the suspension of congressional deliberations on the BBL, with several lawmakers openly questioning the sincerity of the MILF.

But no one gives up on the pursuit of peace, and it’s certain that the peace process will continue, if not now, then in the next administration.

What the attack has done is to compel a pause in the process, upsetting the administration’s timetable, not to mention the inflow of investments and foreign development funds to the still non-existent Bangsamoro entity.

Confidence-building to restore trust is never easy, especially after a treacherous massacre of 44 men. On both sides, telling the truth will help.