PNP: Napeñas to blame

Echoing President Aquino’s pronouncement last Monday before leaders of evangelical Christian churches, the Philippine National Police (PNP) said yesterday relieved Special Action Force director Getulio Napeñas should take responsibility for the SAF operation in Mamasapano, Maguindanao last Jan. 25.

PNP spokesman Chief Superintendent Generoso Cerbo Jr. said Aquino has been consistent in his pronouncement regarding the SAF operation that left dozens killed including 44 SAF commandos.

“We’ve seen the President speak from the heart, his experience about what happened, about his role in the Mamasapano clash, especially how he feels and the role of Gen. Napeñas,” Cerbo said in a press briefing at Camp Crame.

“His (President Aquino) statement on Monday was consistent with his statement in the past and with the information revealed during the other hearings at the Senate, the House of Representative, there was no deviation or conflict,” he said.

At Malacañang, Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said it would be up to the PNP Board of Inquiry to determine accountability for the Mamasapano tragedy and promised there would be no whitewash or “yellow wash” in the investigation.

In a meeting with evangelical Christians at Malacañang last Monday, President Aquino accused Napeñas of deceiving him about the SAF operations to arrest Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan, and Filipino cohort Basit Usman.

Stressing that he was not speaking about Mamasapano, Cerbo said a commanding officer should take responsibility for the outcome of a police operation.

“Speaking from experience, the unit commander should always be responsible with what the unit on the ground is doing,” said Cerbo. “During the planning of a police operation, as the commanding officer, I could perhaps turn to my immediate superior to seek guidance. But at the end of the day, it’s my responsibility how should I plan,” he said.

“Upon completion of my mission, it’s my responsibility how will I extricate my men. The commander has a big role in launching a police operation. It requires meticulous planning, especially as it involved as many as the SAF men in Mamasapano operation,” he added. “If my mission failed, I don’t have anybody to blame but myself.”

He said “higher ups” provide only guidance “in a general, strategic way,” and that the commanding officer is the one familiar with the “nitty-gritty of the operations.”

“I’m not talking about the Mamasapano incident, but it’s how it is. In the military organization and even in the PNP, there are commanders responsible (in every operation).”

Cerbo said the commander gets rewards for successful operation and takes responsibility for failed ones.

But he stressed the PNP is not abandoning Napeñas.

“This should not be taken as Napeñas being left on his own,” he said.

“We just hope this will not be taken as someone is being pinned down. Nobody was left alone. What we are looking into is who were responsible and search for the truth,” Cerbo added.

“It is a great disservice to SAF 44 if we will accuse somebody who should not be accused or blamed,” he added.

In his meeting with leaders of evangelical Christian churches, Aquino lamented the “lack of professionalism” on the part of Napeñas, even as he emphasized that he was communicating directly only with then suspended police chief Alan Purisima and not with the SAF chief during the operation.

Aquino said he would not have given the go signal for the mission had he known that the SAF chief would defy his orders and put the lives of his men in danger.

In the same prayer meeting, Aquino announced he is bent on “reconstituting” SAF and promised to take care of the families of the 44 commandos killed in the encounter with Moro Islamic Liberation Front guerrillas.

“Now, the task before us, of course (is) to take care of the families that were left behind and reconstitute the SAF to rebuild its esprit de corps, its morale, especially and given the fact that next year, the police will play a very vital role in ensuring that we have safe, orderly and peaceful elections,” Aquino said.

Noy cooperative

Coloma, meanwhile, clarified that the President had already shared with the public everything he knows about the Mamasapano incident, including details of his text messages with Purisima regarding the operation.

He said the President was not passing blame or avoiding responsibility as the latter is fully aware that the issue of accountability is for the BOI to determine.

Coloma stressed that responsibility was different from culpability and that it would be up to the public to weigh the President’s statements.

Source: Philippine Star