MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) – The Senate’s scheduled hearing on the bloody Mamasapano operation that took the lives of 44 elite cops was rescheduled, the office of Senator Grace Poe announced Monday, February 2. 

Poe, chairman of the Senate’s committee on public order and dangerous drugs, originally set the hearing on the botched police operation for Wednesday, February 4. The senator changed the schedule of the hearing following a request of Philippine National Police (PNP) Office-in-Charge Deputy Director General Leonardo Espina. 

In a letter to Poe, Espina asked that the hearing be rescheduled since both he and PNP Special Action Force OIC Chief Superintendent Noli Taliño will be busy the entire week attending to the concerns of the surviving families of the slain 44. 

“We understand the objective of this public hearing is to ferret out the truth. We are one with the Senate in this, that is why we wanted to tell the story ourselves,” Espina assured Poe in his letter.

Espina said Taliño will be going around the country to attend the wake and burials of the 44 slain troopers. On Monday, Taliño and Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II went to Benguet, Baguio, La Union, and Pangasinan to visit the wake of some of the 42. 

The Senate hearings will instead be held on February 9 and 10.

Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) chief negotiator Mohagher Iqbal also wrote Poe to say he will refer her invitation to the hearing to the MILF’s Central Committee, which “ultimately has the jurisdiction and mandate over such invitation.” 

“Rest assured that the MILF is one with your committee in trying to understand what happened that day. MILF is also doing its own internal probe into the matter,” Iqbal said. 

The House of Representatives will also suspend hearings related to the incident while police investigation is ongoing. Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr said they will leave it to the experts to get to the bottom of the matter.

On January 25, 392 SAF troopers entered a known territory of the MILF and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) on a mission to neutralize bomb makers Zulkifli bin Hir and Abdul Basit Usman, “high value targets” and among the most-wanted terrorists in Southeast Asia.

SAF’s top officials reportedly failed to coordinate with the the military, the MILF, and even top police officials for the operation. Marwan was reportedly killed while Usman escaped. 

Both Roxas and Espina were kept in the dark, learning about the operation hours after troopers had entered the area and around the same time rebel fighters had already engaged them. 

In the know, meanwhile, were relieved PNP SAF commander Police Director Getulio Napeñas, suspended PNP chief Director General Alan Purisima, and President Benigno Aquino III himself. Aquino, in a televised speech, said he told Napeñas to coordinate well prior to the operation. 

While Aquino clarified that Purisima was only involved up until his suspension in early December, Rappler sources and various news reports have said otherwise. Purisima was supposedly calling the shots during the entire operation. 

Why there was lack of coordination and an unclear chain of command during the operation is among the questions Poe wants police officials to answer during the hearing. Among the officials Poe wants to hear from are Roxas, Espina, Taliño, Purisima, and Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin. 

The Philippine government and the MILF are in the end stages of a long-awaited peace deal that would create a new autonomous region in war-torn Muslim Mindanao. The encounter is threatening to endanger the deal, with two senators withdrawing their support for the Bangsamoro Basic Law.

Both the PNP and the MILF are planning their own investigation on the incident.

Drilon: Wrong for Purisima to be involved

Ahead of the hearing, Senate President Franklin Drilon criticized Purisima’s alleged involvement in the operation despite his suspension. The Ombudsman preventively suspended Purisima in December as it investigates a graft complaint over an allegedly anomalous contract the PNP entered into with a courier service in 2011. 

Malacañang, Poe, Vice President Jejomar Binay called on Purisima to speak up on what he knows of the encounter. 

[It was] totally improper for Purisima to give instructions if that is what happened. He’s suspended. He should not do so,” the Senate chief said. 

“Certainly, the suspension clearly calls for his inhibiting himself from any official act.”

Drilon though distanced Aquino from Purisima, a close friend of the chief executive. “I don’t think there is any evidence the President allowed him to be involved.” 

Senator Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito said he supports the bill proposing the creation of a truth commission to investigate the clash. Along with Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, Ejercito withdrew support for the Bangsamoro law over the incident.   

The opposition senator said he does not want to speculate on Aquino and Purisima’s role in the encounter but officials should answer lingering questions. 

“My biggest concern is if the chief executive or if the PNP knew of this mission, they should have had a plan B in case everything does not go as plan. They should have asked for reinforcement from the military.”

Ejercito said it is best for an independent body to conduct the investigation even if the PNP, the MILF, the International Monitoring team overseeing the government and the MILF’s ceasefire, Congress, and the Commission on Human Rights are already doing parallel probes.

“It’s better that no active PNP official would be part of the investigative body. I personally would think that retired justices or retired police officers would better be able to give their good insights or contributions and they’ll be able to perform better. There will be no bias,” he said. – with reports from Ayee Macaraig/Rappler.com