NO LAW PUNISHES BREAKING OF CHAIN OF POLICE COMMAND!

NO LAW PUNISHES BREAKING OF 

CHAIN OF POLICE COMMAND!

If the President directly orders a police officer bypassing all higher-ranked police officers in the hierarchy, WHAT THE HECK IS THE PUNISHMENT?

I see nothing.

There is no law punishing the President for breaking the chain of command of the PNP or even the AFP.  In this case, what applies is the principle that says: "There is no crime if there is no law punishing it" (Nullum crimen nulla poena sine lege).

As far as I am concerned, "chain of command" is a mere administrative policy that applies to a subordinate and not to the head of an agency.  By nature, administrative sanctions are imposed by the head to a subordinate for an administrative violation and NOT by a subordinate to his or her superior.

As to the head of the agency, his or her violations of his or her official functions can be sanctioned only by any officer higher than him or her.  And if it is the President who violated, who will discipline the President if he is the highest official of the land?  No one else, except the people who can do so only in a collective act, in a referendum or in an impeachment proceeding where congressmen and senators presumably act for the people.  And if it is only the people who can decide, then the issue of whether on the breaking of the chain of command is a political issue.

If that is so, why clamor for the resignation of President P-Noy?

If the President will not resign, what will these who demand resignation do?

Those who want the head of P-Noy could do it by the law on initiative calling for a snap election for the president.  They could do it by initiating an impeachment proceeding if the breaking of police chain of command fits in to any of the grounds for impeachment enumerated in the Constitution.   And talking about impeachment, can it be a betrayal of public trust if P-Noy broke the chain by directly going to Napeñas and bypassing PNP OIC Leonardo Espina or can it be a culpable violation of the Constitution when there is nothing in the Constitution that states about chain of command?

Every President is elected by the people. By election, the people virtually "appointed" him at the same time to be the OVERALL HEAD of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).

On top of the items discussed above, there are other obstacles.

First, the President is immune from any kind of suit while serving as President as granted unto him or her by the Constitution that the people ordained or promulgated.

Second, every judgment call made by the President during his tenure as President, right or wrong, are Acts of State that cannot be subject of any suit.

Talking about the Mamasapano Tragedy, assuming the PNP Board of Inquiry (BOI) report to be true, the President made a judgment call to bypass all higher police officers in the line of hierarchy in making a direct order to General Getulio Napeñas to assemble men and machine to catch or arrest bomber Marwan or Zulkipli Bin Hir.

It is also established that before the President directed Napeñas to go for the mission "impossible", General Napeñas laid down the history of botched attempts to get Marwan as a premise that the mission must be top secret that nobody else must know.  This history of failures and the extraordinary significance of arresting Marwan can serve as P-Noy's defenses why he broke the chain of command.

One thing more is established, that the President told Napeñas not to forget to coordinate.  Napeñas, for his part, understood this order to be "timed-on-target" coordination.

Another thing is established: P-Noy did not instruct Napeñas as to what strategy to take in the actual implementation of the plan to arrest Marwan.  This left to Napeñas the final say as to how to do it.

With 392 SAF commandos at his disposal, General Napeñas executed his strategy.  Being a commando himself, Napeñas was expected to use all his knowledge, wisdom and wit. He was also expected to have a high caliber of stock knowledge as a graduate of the Philippine Military Academy.

Result: DISASTER.

Forty-four SAF commandos, in each of those persons the State invested more than a million pesos in training and equipment, were killed as the price paid for the head of one person, Marwan.

Clearly, the only thing that can be said of P-Noy is he broke the PNP chain of command in directing Napeñas to "GO GET MARWAN."

What happened in the actual execution of the plan is all for Napeñas to answer and explain.

And if Napeñas cannot answer and explain: HE IS GUILTY OF GROSS NEGLIGENCE.

After reading the premises, do you have now moral standing to demand for P-Noy resignation?

I don't have. How about you friend?