PNP Special Action Force Chief Getulio Napeñas lamented yesterday during the continued hearing of the House of Representatives that President Aquino betrayed them as they were abandoned while performing their duty with regards to the ill-fated operation that left 44 of his men lost their lives in Mamasapano, Maguindanao.
The PNP-SAF Chief felt that the Philippine President and some military officials had abandoned and “betrayed” them during their mission to capture the international terrorist Marwan who was hiding near the BIFF and MILF camps in Maguindanao.
According to the former PNP-SAF Chief, they were betrayed as he told the congressmen present during the hearing. He was quoted as saying “I and many of my men feel we were left hanging because timely and effective support was not given to us in the middle of the firefight in the morning of Jan. 25,” Napeñas said in response to a question of Kabataan party-list Rep. Terry Ridon.
Napeñas narrated that from 7:53 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Jan. 25, they repeatedly asked for artillery support for the SAF’s 55th Special Action Company, “but none came,” Napeñas said.
Aside from the Philippine President, the sacked PNP-SAF Chief specifically mentioned the suspended PNP Chief Director General Alan Purisima, PNP officer-in-charge Deputy Director General Leonardo Espina, Lt. Gen. Rustico Guerero, head of the military’s Western Mindanao command, and Maj. Gen. Edmundo Pangilinan, commander of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division as the officials and officers who he claimed betrayed them.