Manila: Twenty Philippine senators have signed a report that accuses President Benigno Aquino of breaking the chain of command when he allowed a suspended police chief to lead an anti-terror operation that killed 44 police special forces.

The report blames suspended police chief Alan Purisima and former Special Action Force Chief Director Getulio Napenas for planning and executing, respectively, Operation Exodus on January 25.

The mission was designed to get wanted Malaysian bombmaker Zulkifli Bin Hir, alias Marwan, and Filipino-Muslim bomb expert Basit Usman in a village in Mamasapano town, Maguindanao, said Senator Grace Poe, chair of several senate committees that investigated the incident starting on February 9.

Explaining why it found Aquino liable, the report said he asked Purisima and Napenas to undertake a risky operation, but bypassed the acting police chief and the interior secretary who is in charge of the police. Napenas was sacked in January; Purisima resigned in February.

The report also rubbished Justice Secretary Leila de Lima’s claim that Aquino is compelled to observe the doctrine of chain of command with regards to armed forces operations.

The 20 signatories vowed to submit their respective observations of the incident.

“These will be part of the senate report that will be debated and approved in a plenary in May,” said Senate President Franklin Drilon, who did not sign the report. Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Lito Lapid, and Antonio Trillanes also did not sign it.

Describing the report as week, political observer Antonio Pangilinan told Gulf News, “The senate’s focus on chain of command is a diversionary tactic. Aquino’s true crime was his refusal to reinforce the special police forces when it was needed.”

“The military’s reinforcement of the police could result in an encounter that might threaten the 2014 political settlement of the Philippine government and the 47-year old Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF),” explained Pangilinan, adding, “The 44 special police forces were sacrificed this way.”

Eighteen MILF members and five civilians were also killed in the incident.

“This is a criminal issue and not merely an administrative violation, which cannot be dissolved by Aquino’s public apology,” Pangilinan explained.

Protests rallies and impeachment complaints against Aquino may not prosper this time, but cases against him will be filed after the end of his term in 2016, several lawyers said.

The 20 senators who signed were Paolo Benigno Aquino, Juan Edgardo Angara, Nancy Binay, Alan Peter Cayetano, Pia Cayetano, Jinggoy Estrada, J.V. Ejercito, Francis Escudero, Teofisto Guingona, Gregorio Honasan, Loren Legarda, Poe, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, Sergio Osmeña III, Aquilino Pimentel, Ralph Recto, Ramon Revilla, Miriam Santiago, Vicente Sotto, and Cynthia Villar.