Conspiracy of lies

Where was then troubleshooter and President Noynoy Aquino’s alter ego Mar Roxas amid the national crisis which was the Mamasapano carnage of 44 Special Action Force (SAF) troopers?

“The yellow circle of Noynoy and his Liberal Party were stuck in a dilemma of plucking out the bumbling duo from public outrage.

While Noynoy fed the policemen to the terrorist sharks in Maguindanao, Roxas was shedding crocodile tears before SAF members at the Philippine National Police (PNP) headquarters in Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig after the massacre.

Mar tried to appease the wounded feelings of members of the elite police unit broken down in the fake Roxas manner, but kept to the line of Noynoy in his national address after the extent of the tragedy was made public.

Noynoy coined the term “misencounter” which did not exist in the dictionary, but Noynoy and Roxas used it to describe the clash between the policemen and the rebels, many of whom were members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

He said there was nothing to coordinate to him about the operations targeting Bali bombing suspect Malaysian terrorist Marwan since “he was unaware of the mission.”

Later on, during the meeting with SAF members, he acceded to the demand from seething members of the elite police force to call the incident a slaughter instead.

Noynoy, however, did not withdraw from using the term which appeared to have been the agreement among the MILF and government peace negotiators to salvage the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) and Noynoy’s shot at the Nobel Peace Prize.

The police force considered the term an insult to the slain SAF commandos since that would presumably put some of the blame on them for having committed a blunder.

The yellow circle of Noynoy and his Liberal Party were stuck in a dilemma of plucking out the bumbling duo from public outrage and the solution it arrived at was to dump all the blame on then SAF director Getulio Napeñas or, if that fails, on relieved PNP Chief Alan Purisima.

Roxas then came up with a scenario where he was accordingly taken out of the loop of the operation, claiming that he had “many questions” about the failed mission himself.

The public, however, did not buy that the mission on a high-value target such as Marwan would be a routine operation involving only Napeñas or even the then suspended Purisima.

Noynoy claimed Napeñas had “minimal coordination” when Oplan Exodus was ongoing.

Roxas and then acting PNP Chief Leonardo Espina claimed they were taken totally out of the loop on the operations.

Yet records of text messages to Roxas indicated that he lied through his teeth.

Roxas was sufficiently updated on the progress of Oplan Exodus, but he and Noynoy lost the handle on the situation and failed to apply leadership which was badly needed then.

In one of the text messages, Napeñas told Roxas about the mounting death toll of the SAF troopers caught in the unfamiliar terrain of Mamasapano. Roxas replied “Keep calm and keep your head. We will not abandon the troops.”

Roxas issued his confused reply after 7 p.m. of 25 June when the 44 commandos were already mowed down.

Even at the Senate hearing on the Mamasapano incident, Roxas frequently changed his statements.

At a hearing, Roxas claimed “we were out of the loop” but later on, in the same chamber, he would admit he was informed of the progress of the operations early on the morning of 25 January.

He was later on forced to admit that he forwarded to Aquino a message about the firefight he received from Western Mindanao Police Director General Charles Calima at 7:43 a.m.

Covering up for Noynoy and himself was Roxas’ apparent role in the aftermath of the bungled operations.

He was an utter failure even in this task since the public easily saw through his lies.