My take on this...... All were informed about the operation from their ground commanders to the top brass. Its just that the Military cannot head the operations, as this would make it look like war and jeopardise the peace process. Thus SAF was tapped to head the operations. It was just meant to be an arrest on Marwan. What I think was this operation was intented to just be a " in and out" operation.

Its just that nabulilyaso young plano ng SAF when the booby trap went off and alerted the rebels ( which is really the intent of Marwan for making that trap). There are two factors that made the extraction of the two units difficult:

Reason #1 -yung evac plan di nasunod and naglahiwalay yung attacking unit and blocking unit. Thus making it more difficult to send reinforcement and artillery fire ( so di alam ng ground commander kung nasaan nila papuputukan and i engage yung kalaban). Baka kasi yung pinapaputukan nila e kasama na pala nila. I think the real plan was the attacking unit should've retreated to the location of the blocking unit and would evac as one unit. Thus the tanks on stand by could provide artillery fire to the evac route, This explains the position of the attacking unit ( which is an open field).

Reason#2- sa loob ng kampo ng rebelde, e may civvies din ( asawa, anak, kapatid and mga magulang). This would make it more difficult for our SAF forces or Military to engage the enemy, baka matamaan young mga hindi involve. and kung ganun yung nangyari, e ang lalabaas sa news e minasaker ng mga military or SAF yung mga civvies. Thus ending the peace process and making people around the area angrier at the SAF/ Military/ government. The rebels will also be getting a lot of sympathy of the majority of the people in the Philippines and outside. kasi nagmukhang kawawa sila. Story would go something like... there are talks of peace tapes minasaccre nyo naman pamilya namin. Sino llamas na masama?

If you would think about it, this is a suicide operation. damed if you do and damed if you don't kind of thing. all the commanders are just the fall guys kasi command responsibility ang nangyari and alam nila yun risk na yun from the start. what do you think guys?