lest we forget

January 25th, 12:25am January 24th, 7:48pm TDTWithout Fear Without Favor

Days after the botched Oplan Exodus that took the lives of 44 Special Action Force (SAF) commandos, former President Noynoy Aquino spent his time, not in leading the nation through the tragedy, but in deflecting responsibility.

He spent 13 hours at Camp Bagong Diwa where 41 of the slain members of the elite police force were interred for a day after snubbing the arrival of the bodies from Mamasapano where the troopers died in the mission to neutralize Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir alias Marwan and his Filipino cohort Usman.

Noynoy met with each of the families of the slaughter victims before talking to SAF members in the camp who were all looking for explanations along with the country on what really caused the death of the young policemen.

The atmosphere during the wake of the slain troopers was thick with recrimination and the family members’ demand for swift justice.

Noynoy’s miserable attempt at commiseration was to tell the grieving relatives that he also lost a father in a violent way.

The SAF 44 relatives did not need him recounting his helplessness when his father was assassinated.

The main concern of Noynoy then was not revealing the truth but in preventing the incident’s fallout in affecting the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL).

Talks had it that his allies saw the BBL approval as giving Noynoy a shot at the Nobel Peace Prize which would have been another political trophy for Noynoy.

In a national address regarding the tragedy, Noynoy went through the same process of dodging responsibility.

He claimed details of Oplan Exodus of the Philippine National Police (PNP) were not sufficiently relayed to him and he was not apprised of most of the details of the operations, saying he needed to secure facts from the PNP Board of Inquiry which was formed to probe the incident.

“Like so many others, I have many questions surrounding the incident and I expect the board of inquiry to uncover the truth behind it.”

Yet, he would add he received briefings from the PNP about its “continuing operations against Marwan and Usman” when Noynoy claimed to have “repeated countless times the need for proper, sufficient and timely coordination.”

Noynoy claimed he was not remiss in reminding the then relieved SAF Director Getulio Napeñas about the need for coordination.

His claims at the press conference that followed his address were also conflicting.

Noynoy boasted he was on top of the mission to hunt Marwan for several months and denied that suspended PNP Chief Alan Purisima was involved in planning Oplan Exodus but he admitted to have consulted Purisima on tracking Marwan.

When it came to the execution of the operations, he then said the SAF did not need to coordinate all its actions with him since its only purpose was to serve a pending warrant of arrest on Marwan which already was in conflict with his claim that the SAF did not coordinate with him.

Noynoy, when the police mission was launched, was in Zamboanga City supposedly to attend to families of victims of a bombing incident which was unusual of him since the insensitive President never visited victims of previous attacks with bigger fatalities.

There were reports then that he was waiting in Zamboanga City for the delivery of Marwan’s body as his trophy for presenting to his American masters.

Many remember the same effort to dodge responsibility in Noynoy’s first test of leadership which was the bus hostage tragedy of 2010 where nine Hong Kong tourists died.

The alibis and the buck-passing were never believable in the mere choice of date for Oplan Exodus, 25 January, the birthday of Noynoy’s mom, the late President Cory Aquino.

Instead of an occasion to celebrate the life of the Edsa 1 icon, Noynoy turned it into a day of infamy.