Fireworks at the Senate: Nancy chides Mar over statements

MANILA, Philippines – Senator Nancy Binay chided Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II over his confusing statements on the timeline of his reports to President Benigno Aquino III on the bloody Mamasapano clash.

Roxas is the presumed rival of her father Vice President Jejomar Binay in the 2016 presidential polls.

“A gentle reminder,” Binay said at the resumption of the Senate probe into the incident on Tuesday, February 24. “I asked you in the last hearing if you informed the President. Hindi kayo nakasagot. Yesterday, nabanggit niyo na-text niyo pala ang President ng 8 am,” Binay continued. (You failed to answer my question in last week’s hearing. But yesterday you said you were in touch with the President that day.)

Roxas was visibly offended. He replied to the senator: “I have been and will always tell the truth. I did not commit what you are implying in your statement,” he began. 

“I said, I do not recall. Let me reconstruct my text messages,’ which I then reported to the Senate floor yesterday,” he continued. 

Binay then asked Roxas if the President replied to him after the 8am text message. Aquino said “thank you,” according to Roxas.

In the previous hearing, Binay asked who informed Aquino about the Mamasapano incident on January 25. Roxas, Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin, Armed Forces chief General Gregorio Catapang Jr, and Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom) chief Lieutenant Rustico Guerrero – all whom were with the President in Zamboanga that day – were stumped.

On Tuesday, Binay said she thinks they failed in providing the President the necessary information that would have allowed him to properly assess the situation.

“Lumalabas ngayon na the President was not properly informed. Sino ang may responsibility to tell the President ano nangyayari sa Mamasapano?,” Binay asked.

Roxas again lamented the line of questioning. He reminded the senator that he and the military generals did not know about the operation because they were kept out of the loop.  “Masasabi lang namin kung ano alam namin. We were cut out. Ano ma-re-report namin,” Roxas replied.

Roxas said that it was only at 3 pm on January 25 that they began to appreciate the gravity of the situation after they received confirmation of reports that over 20 SAF commandos had died.

Roxas said this was when he approached the President. They were joined by Gazmin and Guerrero in a huddle in a hospital in Zamboanga. 

Guerrero said that before this they were preoccupied with briefing the President on the situation in Zamboanga, where a car exploded a day earlier. 

He said it was at 11 am when the President asked him about the situation in western Mindanao. He relayed what he knew: that clashes broke out in Mamasapano at 5 am and that he directed 6th Infantry Division Commander Eduardo Pangilinan to support the SAF. Gazmin and Roxas were also in the room when he talked to the President.

“I was called by the President to a room inside the briefing area of Edwin Adrews Airbase. Tinanong ako, ‘Ano nangyari sa central Mindano?’ Hindi briefing na may charts. I was asked kung ano ang update,” Guerrero said. (The President asked me about what was happening in central Mindanao. It was not a briefing; he just asked for updates.)

Guerrero said he did not have a complete picture of what was happening in Mamasapano at the time. He told the President that the SAF did not coordinate with him. 

Like Roxas, it was also around 3pm when Guerrero received a report from Coordinating Committee on Cessation of Hostilities Brigadier General Carlito Galvez about massive casualties in Mamasapano. It was then when he decided to go inside the hospital, where he found the President, Gazmin, and Roxas in a huddle. “Seryoso na po ang parte na ‘yun kaya po ako umakyat sa hospital para sumunod kay Secretary Gazmin. At that time, nag-uusap na ang tatlo,” said Guerrero. – Rappler.com