Manila: President Beningo Aquino appointed a new police special forces chief, replacing a newly-installed officer in charge and a former officer who was relieved after a controversial anti-terror campaign that killed 68 people, including a Malaysian terrorist, including five civilians, 18 Filipino-Muslim rebels, and 44 police commandos in the southern Philippines last month.

Aquino appointed Chief Superintendent Virgilio Lazo as head of the Philippine national Police Special Action Force (PNP-SAF), replacing acting PNP-SAF officer-in-charge Chief Superintendent Noli Taliño, and Director Gertulio Napeñas who was relieved right after the botched police operation in Mamasapano town, Maguindanao last January 25.

President Aquino attended the turnover ceremonies at a camp in suburban Quezon City on Wednesday. The National Police Commission will formalise Lazo’s appointment.

Lazo was former head of the PNP’s Firearms and Explosives Office. After graduating from the elite Philippine Military Academy in 1984, he was with PNP-SAF until 1989; and from 2010 to 2013. He also served the Presidential Security Group during the time of former President Fidel Ramos from 1992 to 2001.

Aquino has yet to appoint a police chief. Before the turnover ceremonies, he met with more than 300 police commandos who survived the ill-fated anti-terror mission.

Aquino has been criticised for allowing a suspended police chief to lead the operation, but failed to inform the acting police chief, the chief of staff, including the interior and defence secretaries, about it.

The covert operation was not coordinated with the 37-year old Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) which controlled Pidsawan village where Jemaah Islamiyah bomb expert Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan, a Malaysian, was killed. It was a protocol to be observed after the Philippine government and the MILF forged a pro-autonomy peace settlement in 2014.

Based in a nearby Mamasapano village, members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), MILF’s faction starting 2008, also participated in the mis-encounter.

Aquino called an all-out war against the Al Qaida-linked BIFF in central Mindanao, and the Abu Sayyaf Group in Sulu, southern Mindanao.