Manila: Philippine senator Leila de Lima has defended former President Benigno Aquino III’s decision ordering a commando operation to neutralise wanted terrorist Zulkifli Bin Hir in 2005, saying that the leader was compelled to make the call.

“The Mamasapano tragedy is one of those ‘damned if you do, damned if you don’t’ decisions a president makes. It was a choice between letting a terrorist bomber slip away once again to wreak more destruction on civilians, or capture him with the concomitant risks an operation such as his capture in hostile territory entails,” De Lima, who was Aquino’s Justice Secretary at time, said.

The Mamasapano tragedy is one of the most perplexing events in the government’s campaign against terrorism.

Some 200 commandos from the elite Police Special Action Force (SAF) were ordered by Aquino to neutralise one of the most wanted terrorists in Southeast Asia, Zulkifli Bin Hir, alias “Marwan”, but while the secret operation eliminated the target — also wanted by the US for his role in bombing attacks against Americans — the success was marred by the death of 44 commandos.

The operation also led to the deaths of five civilians and 18 members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), and endangered the government’s peace process with the Islamists in the south.

For his role in making the decision that led to the tragedy, Aquino was charged last November 8 before the Sandiganbayan anti-graft court by the Office of the Ombudsman for graft and trying to persuade or influence another public officer to perform an illegal act.

De Lima, herself under detention on drugs-related charges, said the case against Aquino also presents an opportunity for the former President to defend himself and prove his innocence.

“As a citizen Noynoy (Aquino’s pet name), will now have the opportunity to present his case before our tribunals, of how he, as president, made the difficult choice of ordering the capture of a most wanted terrorist, but with the possibility of casualties on the government side, as what eventually happened,” said De Lima.

She said that difficult as it was considering the cost of lives lost, Aquino had to make the call to proceed with the operation to neutralise Marwan.

“Do we even care how many hundreds of civilian lives were saved, at the cost of 44 of our bravest and noblest? Whether we like it or not, that is how our government asks our soldiers and our policemen to put their lives at risk, and if need be, to be the first to die, in order for us to live in peace. Let us not forget that in the trial of Citizen Noynoy. I wholeheartedly wish his vindication,” said De Lima.

The Philippines has a long history of having its former leaders imprisoned or sent to trial. Aquino’s predecessor Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was detained for several years for alleged corruption while former president Joseph Estrada was tried and found guilty of the capital crime of plunder.

Then President Arroyo pardoned Estrada and both currently serve as elected leaders.

Arroyo is Congressman in Pampanga while Estrada is mayor of the capital city, Manila.