There are too many investigations being conducted on the Mamasapano encounter. The results of four have now been released. Well, five, if the President’s own investigation which he reported during that prayer rally meeting in Malacañang is included.
The trouble with that investigation, however, is that the President keeps on adding to his findings. First, it was the fault of Napeñas. Then Purisima did not follow his explicit order to inform PNP OIC Espina. The story keeps on changing. The public does not know what to believe or whether more revelations are forthcoming.
The public has a chance to find out when he speaks during the Philippine National Police Academy graduation. It was reported that the President would tell all in that speech. Let us hope that he will finally say everything that has to be said so that perhaps the nation can start to move on.
It has been two months that the nation’s attention has been focused mainly on Mamasapano and the travails of the President. We have to start thinking of tackling other important issues.
For instance, the Smartmatic issue with the Comelec has to be dealt with. Otherwise, the elections in 2016 will be manipulated by syndicates who have partnered with Smartmatic. This would be catastrophic to our electoral process.
Another issue that has just emerged is the press release by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas that the national debt of the country is now $20 billion more the $57B that has always been maintained by the BSP over the years – and no one seems to be asking questions. Where did the $20B in debt come from and how did we accumulate this additional debt out of the blue? It is as if the BSP took advantage of the preoccupation of the public on the Mamasapano incident to sneak the announcement in the hope that no one is paying attention. If this is so, it seems to have worked.
The Commission on Human Rights report is now out together with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front report. The MILF findings did not come as a surprise to many. The findings were predictable. It is not their fault but the fault of the PNP SAF. They only fought back. Never mind if Zulkifli bin Hir was photographed in MILF- and BIFF-controlled areas. The MILF findings, I can understand and I expected as much.
What blew my mind was the findings of the Commission on Human Rights. By what right or authority does CHR have to find fault on the findings of the other investigative bodies like the Senate report? This is not its business and the CHR is way out of line. The CHR arrogated unto itself to be the agency that can pass judgment on the report of others. Etta Rosales simply exposed her bias and true color with her report.
The CHR has also intruded into an area that it is not competent. It declared that the firefight was a misencounter. Does the CHR even know the meaning of the word? What the CHR should have limited itself to was establishing whether there were any human rights violations in the Mamasapano encounter and if there were, who were responsible.
This report has zero value. There are still three investigations going on. The Department of Justice, the Office of the Ombudsman, and the House of Representatives. We can almost predict the outcome of the DOJ investigations. One of the findings will almost certainly exonerate the President of any culpability because there is no violation of chain of command, the PNP being a civilian organization. This is what we call the De Lima Doctrine.
Thankfully, this will only last for 14 months, after which it will be swept into the dustbin of history. The Ombudsman investigation is more intriguing. Unlike the Secretary of the DOJ who has always something to say, the office of the Ombudsman has kept to itself. We therefore do not know the scope of the investigation and is hard to predict what it will come up with. There might be a chance that it will be less partisan and come up with more objective findings.
The House investigation will be more raucous; I hope it does not turn into a circus. And being controlled by the President’s allies, it will most probably attempt to shield the President. But there are many good lawyers in the opposition who will try to prevent this and come out with more credible findings. Still, I am being optimistic here.
The outcome of these numerous investigations will prove immaterial because the public has already made their own conclusions. These have already been reflected in opinion surveys. It is doubtful therefore that the public would still change its mind and be more forgiving to the President as the Palace would want.
What may be crucial now is what the President says during the PNPA graduation rites. If he comes out sincere and humble, it will go a long way in assuaging the hurt feelings of the public who have grown tired of the way he has been handling the Mamasapano crisis. But if he continues to stand his ground and blame others and not accept his own shortcomings, then his speech will be useless.
I do not think that the public is blaming him for all that has happened. But what they want is for him to accept his part of the blame and not keep on passing them to others. Clearly, being a direct participant, he made bad decisions in handling the Mamasapano operation.
