Critics hit Palace’s ‘new script’ on PNoy’s involvement in Mamasapano operation

(Updated 10:15 p.m.) Opposition lawmakers have raised their eyebrows at the apparent shift in Malacañang’s story concerning President Benigno Aquino III’s involvement in the covert police operation to arrest two high-value terrorists in Mamasapano, Maguindanao last Jan. 25.

From a “misencounter” between Moro rebels and Special Action Force (SAF) troopers, Kabataan party-list Rep. Terry Ridon said the “official Palace story” about Aquino’s involvement in the police operation codenamed “Oplan Exodus” has been changed to alleging he was misinformed by resigned Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Alan Purisima and relieved SAF Director Getulio Napeñas.

“It’s a big shift from what the president was saying a few weeks back. It’s a new script, and it’s a bad one,” he said on Wednesday.

Lawmakers who were present at the meeting with the President on Monday recalled him as saying he felt he had been lied to by Purisima when he received inaccurate information that help was on the way for the beleaguered SAF troopers trapped in a gunfight with Moro rebels in Mamasapano.

On Tuesday, Senate President Franklin Drilon cleared Aquino of any liability regarding the Mamasapano operation, saying that Aquino gave “appropriate instruction” to Napeñas and Purisima regarding Oplan Exodus.

Forty-four SAF commandos died in a clash with armed groups while in pursuit of terrorists Zulkifli bin Hir alias Marwan and Abdul Basit Usman in an area believed to be a territory of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in Mamasapano.

'Yellow washing'

Ridon said the Palace’s official “script” is being followed “to the letter,” with the line of questioning in the Senate probe on Tuesday highlighting Purisima and Napeñas’ deliberate plan to misinform Aquino.

“From the changing script of cabinet members to the attempts of his allies in both the Senate and the House to shield him from accountability, it is apparent that there is a massive cover-up plan that’s now being implemented,” the lawmaker said.

Buhay party-list Rep. Jose “Lito” Atienza Jr. and Abakada party-list Rep. Jonathan dela Cruz said Malacañang’s new story about Aquino’s misinformation by his subordinates is just another part of a “continuing lying session.”

“If Purisima were at fault, why does he continue to be on the President’s side? If he committed an offense, should he have been arrested already?” Dela Cruz asked.

United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) interim president and Navotas City Rep. Toby Tiangco said the focus on Aquino’s misinformation at the recent Senate hearing is yet another evidence of “yellow washing” by administration allies to cover up Aquino’s alleged lapses in handling the police operation.

“Last week, they claimed they had no knowledge of the Mamasapano incident until the afternoon and thus the lame excuse that they were not able to inform the President… [but now they had a] sudden turnabout, with a detailed narration about telling the President about the operation [early in the morning],” he said.

'Pnoy's Watergate'

In a transcript of text messages that he read before a Senate inquiry Monday, it was revealed that Purisima had told Aquino the military was already providing mechanized and artillery support even though they had not yet been deployed at that time.

Purisima was already suspended as PNP chief when the SAF commandos carried out the operation to nab Marwan and Usman.

Ridon invoked Watergate, a political scandal in the United States in the 1970s which involved a break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters which was directly linked to the Nixon administration.

“In the aftermath of the Watergate scandal, the Nixon administration mounted a grand cover-up scheme to shield then-US President Richard Nixon from the whole affair. This cover-up was essentially the Nixon administration’s stumbling block that eventually led to his resignation,” Ridon said.

“The Mamasapano cover-up will be Aquino’s Watergate,” he added. “It’s apparent [this is] nothing but a last-ditch effort to make it appear that Aquino was not at fault for the botched Mamasapano operation.” — BM, GMA News