Secrecy and deception

 The intervening incident took place when 44 troopers of the Special Action Force (SAF) deployed to capture two most wanted international terrorist bombers hiding in Mamasapano, Maguindanao were killed in action last Jan. 25. The 44 slain troopers were part of the 392 highly trained SAF members of the Philippine National Police (PNP) on a top-secret law enforcement mission that went haywire.

Why and how it turned tragic is now slowly coming out in the light as we sift through the testimonies and reports from the various investigations being conducted into the incident. These investigations include the separate Senate and House public hearings into the Jan. 25 incident in relation to the pending proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) before the 16th Congress.

We could only thank these televised public hearings in Congress that we are able to learn more of this unfortunate incident that now endangers the ongoing peace process in Mindanao. After holding three public hearings, the Senate for the past two days opted to conduct closed-door executive sessions due to sensitive matters impinging on the safety of the witnesses and on national security.

The House public hearing, on the other hand, has been suspended for now. This after the first House public hearing turned circus-like, if not almost breaking into full-scale war of congressmen among themselves.

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. clarified yesterday the House hearing on the Mamasapano incident will resume perhaps after two weeks when emotions simmer down, especially among House members taking up the cause of the slain 44 SAF men from their congressional districts. 

The passage into law of the BBL by Congress was among the specific implementing measures that the administration of President Benigno “Noy” Aquino III committed in a peace pact entered into with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

On March 27, 2014, President Aquino along with chairman Al Haj Murad Ebrahim witnessed the signing of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) in elaborate rites held at Malacañang.

The BBL’s immediate approval was endorsed to both chambers of Congress by no less than President Aquino on Sept. 10 in the same year, about five months after the CAB was signed.

But all of these started after President Aquino, accompanied by Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin, Budget Secretary Florencio Abad, Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Teresita Deles, National Security Adviser Cesar Garcia and presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda flew to Tokyo on Aug. 4, 2011 for a clandestine meeting with top MILF leaders headed by chairman Murad.

It was hailed successful and fruitful as it enabled the Aquino administration to restart the peace talks with the MILF that also agreed to enter into a ceasefire agreement to pave the way for negotiations. After the Tokyo meeting, reports came out that goodwill money was given to the MILF as part of the confidence building measures for the peace talks. The government later confirmed it.

Thus, even from the very beginning, President Aquino has demonstrated his predilection for secrecy in his dealing with the MILF.

Despite the Aquino administration’s public avowals for transparency, it appears there are a number of things that Filipinos would come to know only after the facts come out as in this Mamasapano incident.

So it’s not only PNP officer-in-charge Leonardo Espina, Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Mar Roxas II, and even Gazmin and Deles who did not know anything about it. They all swore being left out of the loop by President Aquino who did not alert them before the SAF operation in Mamasapano was carried out on that fateful day.

As now told in public, erstwhile PNP director-general Alan Purisima – while under suspension – was directing the SAF’s top-secret mission code-named “Oplan Exodus” to capture Malaysian terrorist bomber Zulkifli bin Abdul Hir, alias Marwan, and Basit Usman. Both wanted fugitives, who carried reward money over their heads, were found in hiding in an area known to be an MILF stronghold and co-existing with relatives from their splinter bandit group Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), and other private armed groups.

Why Marwan and Usman had been living with them in their midst, the MILF continues to deny coddling these two most dangerous terrorist fugitives.

Taking the “advice” from Purisima, former SAF chief Getulio Napeñas launched Oplan Exodus under the impression they had the “tacit approval” of President Aquino.     
Since it was a continuing law enforcement operation, Napeñas told the congressional hearings, they executed Oplan Exodus time on target. In layman’s language, time on target simply meant Exodus would only be coordinated with the military once the mission is carried out on the ground.

Hence, when it was done and over with, the MILF also complained that they, too, were not informed by the government in violation of the truce pact.

Even if the Mamasapano incident did not take place, the BBL would not pass in both chambers of Congress in its present form. Interviewed over DzBB yesterday, Sen.Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. noted the BBL contained “silent provisions” on how to implement the peace agreement with the MILF to form their own Bangsamoro police without violating the provision of the Constitution.

After the Mamasapano incident, Sen. Marcos raised the specter SAF killers within the ranks of the MILF may also be included in that new Bangsamoro police that must be placed under the control and supervision of the PNP. With so many questions now coming out after SAF’s Oplan Exodus, Marcos sees BBL would be passed by Congress but far from what the government and the MILF crafted it in haste.

So understandably, President Aquino hemmed and hawed after confronted with questions as to who gave the go signal when he first addressed the nation three days after the bloody SAF operation. Perhaps, it was too late for the Commander-in-chief to realize his grave mistake. But less talk, the President now thinks, would be better for the government to salvage the Mindanao peace process, or whatever is left of it.

Both sides feeling betrayed, the peace process in Mindanao is now running on thin line. Blame it on the secrecy and deception that both sides are guilty of.