Liberals need to get Mamasapano off their back
Credit to Author: THE MANILA TIMES| Date: Sun, 21 Apr 2019 16:14:46 +0000
LIBERAL Party president Francis Pangilinan still does not realize it. Mamasapano is a national tragedy or wound that will not heal, it will keep recurring in national politics as a live issue, for as long as the LP refuses to own its shared responsibility for the tragedy.
President Benigno Aquino 3rd, a Liberal, authorized the ill-fated mission, and even placed a suspended police general to take charge of the operation.
Manuel ‘Mar’ Roxas was secretary of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) at the time the incident happened. Law enforcement is the DILG’s mandate, and the Special Action Forces troops were taken from the Philippine National Police, over which the interior secretary has supervision and authority.
Mamasapano was a policy failure of the entire Aquino administration. It is a monkey on the back of the Liberal party.
When Mar Roxas ran for president in the 2016 elections, Mamasapano was one issue raised against him during the campaign.
Roxas was with President Aquino in Mindanao at the time of the fatal encounter. He did nothing to press the president to send reinforcements to rescue the beleaguered commandos while the battle was taking place. Instead he meekly accepted Aquino’s stony indifference to the fate of the SAF commandos.
Questions were asked of Roxas during the Senate inquiry into Mamasapano. And he never satisfied public doubts about his inaction in the affair.
Now, the Mamasapano issue has returned to hound Roxas in his current candidacy for the Senate.
In the latest blast against him, President Duterte says “Mar Roxas 2nd wasted the lives of the 44 police commandos who died in the 2015 Mamasapano tragedy.”
Senator Pangilinan, as LP president, has gamely taken up the cudgels for Roxas, defending him against the charge.
The senator has branded Duterte’s blast as just “politicking” or “divisionary tactics.”
Pangilinan issued this statement: “Raising the matter anew is pure and simple politicking, and a means to shun important and pressing issues affecting the Filipinos such as poverty, lack of opportunities, indignation over China’s aggression, and corruption hounding many of the administration candidates.
“The matter has been investigated by the Senate. Charges have been filed and the courts are now handling the matter. Let’s allow the judicial processes to proceed and give the persons involved their day in court. That is where accountability is ultimately determined.”
The truth is the Senate inquiry established nothing. Senators Grace Poe and Francis Escudero preempted the Senate inquiry to project their combined candidacy for president and vice president in the 2016 elections. The Senate inquiry came up with the swishy finding that President Aquino was “ultimately responsible” for Mamasapano.
Did we spend millions in the inquiry to merely come up with this “nothingburger”? Did we authorize millions to committees that adamantly refused to ask President Aquino questions about Mamasapano?
Now, Grace Poe is running for reelection to the Senate. Ever fond of Senate inquiries because of the cameras, she no doubt plans to conduct more probes if she is reelected.
It’s time to remind her of her abject failure as lead Mamasapano prober.
If Mar Roxas is being hounded as DILG secretary for Mamasapano, it’s only fair to also hound the lead investigator of Mamasapano who found nothing.
It’s also relevant to point out here that the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) went to Mamasapano to investigate the incident for possible violations of human rights. Oddly, it did not find a single abuse in the spectacle of 44 dead SAF commandos.
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