Philippine President Accepts Police Chief’s Resignation After Deadly Raid
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Version 0 of 1. MANILA — President Benigno S. Aquino III accepted the resignation of the Philippines’ national police chief on Friday, two weeks after a disastrous raid left 44 police commandos dead and put the country’s peace agreement with rebels in jeopardy. Mr. Aquino has faced searing public criticism, including calls for his impeachment and resignation, since the raid, which the police say killed a top terrorism suspect. The dead police officers have been hailed as national heroes, and many Filipinos have criticized Mr. Aquino as not showing empathy and not taking responsibility for the officers’ deaths. The president addressed the issue in a televised speech on Friday, saying: “As president and commander in chief, I am fully responsible for any result — any triumph, any suffering and any tragedy — that may result from our desire for lasting peace and security.” The operation that led to the resignation of the police chief, Alan Purisima, involved fighting between the police and members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, a rebel group based in the southern Philippines that signed a peace deal with the government last March. The government has agreed to grant a degree of autonomy to areas with predominantly Muslim populations in return for the rebels’ turning over their weapons. Fighting in the southern Philippines over the past four decades has killed at least 120,000 people, displaced nearly a million and caused an estimated $14 billion in economic losses, according to government estimates. In the early morning hours of Jan. 25, about 390 elite antiterrorism police officers descended on Mamasapano, a tiny remote village on the southern island of Mindanao. The commandos were attempting to capture Zulkifli bin Hir, a senior leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist network who is also wanted by the F.B.I. The police officers forded through deep swamps before dawn to reach a hut where, they later told investigators, they found Mr. Zulkifli, who shot at them. The commandos said they killed the suspect but took gunfire from the surrounding area, where two rebel groups are based. The police officers on the scene said they had photographed the suspect’s body as evidence of his death before fleeing the area under heavy fire. As the officers attempted to leave the area, the rebels killed 44 of them, according to government accounts. The Philippine military said in a report released last week that the police had excluded it from the operation and that it had been called in only at the last minute to help rescue the officers when they began taking fire. Immediately after the operation, the commander of the police special operations unit who led the attack, Getulio Napeñas, was relieved of his command. Interior Secretary Mar Roxas and Mr. Aquino said afterward that they had been aware of the long-range planning for the capture of Mr. Zulkifli but that they had not been informed in advance of the specific operation on that day. It is not clear if Mr. Purisima, the police chief who resigned on Friday, was aware of the operation. A finger from the body believed to be Mr. Zulkifli’s was sent by the Philippine government to the F.B.I. for analysis. The agency announced on Wednesday that DNA from the finger appeared to have come from Mr. Zulkifli’s body, based on analysis of samples taken from his brother, who is imprisoned in the United States. Though the DNA test appeared to establish Mr. Zulkifli’s identity, the suspect’s body was removed, and officials have not specified how the police verified that he was declared dead at the scene. Since the raid, officials of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front have said they did not know that Mr. Zulkifli was hiding in areas they control. The rebel group’s chairman, Al Haj Murad Ebrahim, said last week that his troops had not been consulted in advance about the operation, as is required under a cease-fire arrangement the group made with the government. His fighters thought they were being attacked and fired on the police in self-defense, Mr. Ebrahim said. Another top terrorism suspect, the Filipino bomb-making expert Abdul Basit Usman, who is also wanted by the United States, was near the area where the operation took place but escaped, the police have said. Mr. Aquino delivered a strong warning on Friday to rebels who might know of his whereabouts. “If he remains within your territory, or is protected by one of your members, we expect you to surrender him to the authorities,” Mr. Aquino said. “If not, we expect you to do everything you can to help capture him. And if even this is not possible, do not interfere with our pursuit of Usman.” “You are fighting the state, and we will run you over,” he added. Several government investigations of the Jan. 25 operation have been started to determine why so many police officers died. The Philippine Senate is scheduled to hold hearings on the issue on Monday. |