DEFINING MOMENT. Former SAF commander, Director Getulio Napeñas (left) breaks down after approaching and embracing Deputy Director-General Leonardo Espina. Also in picture is Director Benjamin B. Magalong who chairs the PNP probe panel. (INQUIRER PHOTO/LYN RILLON)
Acting PNP chief turns emotional in House probe, blasts ‘overkill’
Acting national police chief, Deputy Director-General Leonardo Espina yesterday broke down in tears as he recalled the brutal killing of the members of the PNP Special Action Force (SAF) amid finger-pointing during the House of Representatives’ probe on the Mamasapano incident.
Espina emotionally recounted how he found out that members of the SAF involved in the clash were alive and without fatal injuries when they were shot in the head by enemy forces.
“Ano ba ‘tong overkill na ginawa niyo sa tao ko? Ako hindi nakatulog kagabi nang malaman ko mga medico-legal report… Bakit niyo kininis tao ko? Buhay na buhay pa ang mga tao ko (Why the overkill done to my men. I couldn’t sleep last night after I read their medico-legal report. Why did you finish off my men?),” Espina said during the hearing.
Espina also expressed frustration with Zamboanga City Rep. Celso Lobregat’s question if the operation in Mamasapano was legal.
“Tinatanong pa natin bakit legal? Tapos you will blame coordination to justify the killing of my men?” he said.
He said he hopes the congressional probe could yield answers so that when he meets the 44 slain SAF troopers, he could provide them answers.
“I seek answers for my people. So that when my time comes, I can face my people and at least I can say something,” Espina said.
“Sana nga sinasabi ko kasama ko na lang sila (I wish I was with them), so I can be with them and say ‘mission accomplished,’” he added.
The dumbstruck audience packed in the meeting room together with members of the joint congressional committee erupted in applause following his remarks.
Shortly after, sacked Special Action Force commander Getulio Napeñas approached and hugged him to calm him down. He went back to his seat also in tears.
Chain of command
During the hearing, resigned PNP chief Alan Purisima insisted that his suspension by the Office of the Ombudsman did not mean he was prohibited from giving advice on the Mamasapano operation.
Purisima, who had resigned over allegations that he had called the shots in the botched operation, said he also did not break the chain of command when he kept Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II and other military and police officials in the dark about the operation.
“To paraphrase military parlance, the DILG (Department of Interior and Local Government) and DILG Secretary [are] not part of the PNP command line although the DILG chair is ex-officio chair of Napolcom (National Police Commission),” he said.
Purisima said the PNP command line was not broken at any time during the operation because the force commander continued to exercise the delegated function of the chief of PNP.
“Although my preventive suspension prevented me from carrying out administrative functions, it did not prevent me from providing inputs, advice to the force commander,” he said.
Allegations were raised that President Benigno Aquino III had authorized Purisima to call the shots in the operation to arrest two wanted terrorists.
Sacked Special Action Force chief, Director Getulio Napeñas said Purisima gave the order to keep the operation secret. The resigned police chief meanwhile said he only gave advice and not orders on the botched operation.
Napeñas also said he could not be accused of breaking the chain of command when he reported to Purisima, despite the latter’s suspension, instead of to his immediate superior PNP officer-in-charge Leonardo Espina.
“I could not be accused of breaking the chain of command, even Justice Secretary (Leila) De Lima said chain of command does not exist in civilian organization like the PNP,” Napeñas said.
Napeñas had said Aquino did not give the go-signal on the operation, but he didn’t give a no-go signal either. He also said he had met with the President to give updates on the operation just on January before the carnage. / Inquirer