Man up

Nearly four months after it happened, the Jan.25 Mamasapano massacre of the 44 Special Action Forces (SAF) commandos continues to haunt the country.

The latest investigation , the House probe which should have started at the same time as the Senate inquiry, exposed several details as well as opened a festering wound that is the animosity between the police and the military.

In last Wednesday’s hearing, Chief Supt. Noli Taliño, SAF deputy director, and Supt. Michael John Mangahis, the ground commander for the SAF Mamasapano operation, accused Col. Gener del Rosario, commander of the Army’s 1st Mechanized Brigade, and his boss, Maj. General Edmundo Pangilinan, the 6th Infantry Division chief, of using the peace process to justify their refusal to provide ground and artillery support to the 55th and 84th SAF companies that were pinned down by Moro rebels during the clash.

An emotional Mangahis told del Rosario to “man up,” and answer honestly  why they failed to assist the SAF commandos in their  hour of need.

The House inquiry started off on the wrong foot when  lawmakers chose to grandstand rather than add anything substantial to the more incisive and  substantial Senate investigation.

But it was more disciplined this time.

Still,  last Wednesday’s hearing had one lawmaker making the silly  suggestion to submit  police and military officials  to a lie detector test “to see who’s telling the truth.”

Is that the best proposal the House can come up with to settle questions between the military and police?

Perhaps they are just  doing their best to get to the bottom of the Mamasapano saga and heal the rift between the country’s primary law enforcement arm and its military command.

Those responsible for the massacre of the 44 SAF commandos must be rolling in their chairs laughing at the sight of the military and police blaming each other for the debacle,  all the while planning their next operation.

As the government’s peace panel is being accused of siding with the MILF, last Wednesday’s confrontation between military and police officials is a sad and unnerving spectacle that President Benigno Aquino III seems incapable of mediating or unwilling to try.

Since his supposed instructions on the Mamasapano operation weren’t followed in both letter and spirit in the first place, how can the President hope to mediate the row between the police and military?

Then again, the President himself isn’t manning up either by refusing to apologize to the country for his mishandling of the debacle, preferring to let others like his former friend Alan Purisima become the scapegoat. Still, Mr. Aquino should do his best if only to ensure that the country’s security isn’t compromised by those salivating at the remote thought of seizing power for themselves.