“Wala pong batayan ang pahayag na ‘yan. Mainam na sa kasalukuyan ay umiwas na lang po tayo sa mga haka-haka at purong espekulasyon na walang batayan,” Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said in a press briefing over state-run dzRB.
According to a report by The Daily Tribune, Deles advised the President not to call the Armed Forces of the Philippines to ask for reinforcements for the Philippine National Police-Special Action Force (PNP-SAF) team that was sent to Maguindanao to serve arrest warrants on two terror suspects last week.
The OPAPP also denied the allegations in a statement posted on its Facebook account on Sunday.
“There is NO TRUTH whatsoever, as alleged by the Daily Tribune in its news story ‘Noy held back on order to reinforce SAF – source’ that came out in its 30 January 2015 issue, that the President called Secretary Deles early in the morning on Sunday, 25 January 2015, to ask her to call the MILF to withdraw its forces,” OPAPP Communications Group Team Leader Polly Cunanan said in the post.
“President Aquino did not call Secretary Deles and, accordingly, there is no truth to the further allegation by the Daily Tribune, which is based on alleged statements from its unidentified sources, that Secretary Deles advised the President to stop the military from sending reinforcement to our beleaguered SAF troopers,” the statement read.
Last Sunday, members of the PNP-SAF went to an MILF-controlled area in Mamasapano, Maguindanao to serve arrest warrants on Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli Bin Hir, alias Marwan, and Filipino bomb maker Abdulbasit Usman.
The operation resulted in the death of 44 of the elite police commandos. — Kathryn Mae P. Tubadeza/BM, GMA News
