China to get hostage report before Pinoys

MANILA, Philippines - Beijing will have a first look at the report of the special body which investigated the Aug. 23 hostage crisis ahead of the public, Malacañang said yesterday.

Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Secretary Ricky Carandang said the government would transmit a copy of the report to Beijing not later than tomorrow through the Chinese embassy in Manila.

The incident investigation and review committee chaired by Justice Secretary Leila de Lima prepared the 83-page report.

A high-level delegation would hand-carry and present a copy of the same report later to Beijing.

“If we’re going to wait for (the delegation) to formally transmit the report, it would take too long as it would be after (Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo) gets back from the US,” Carandang said.

“The President said he wants the report released (to the public) at the soonest possible time,” he added. “So it will be transmitted to the embassy, then released to the public.”

The transmittal will be tomorrow at the latest through the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).

“My point is twofold. Some people are asking why we’re giving it to them first. This is partly because this is out of courtesy to them, as some of their nationals died. There was an agreement at the beginning of the process that we will be transparent (in our investigation) and that we will share (the results) with them (Beijing),” Carandang said.

“For the domestic side, from the beginning there were questions as to whether this is going to be transparent, and whether there would be a whitewash. No one will question or can accuse that there is a whitewash if the report is being given to a foreign government. The bottom line is transparency,” he stressed.

Carandang said transmitting the report to Beijing through the embassy would hasten its release to the public.

“There is no change in the plan of the high level delegation (to formally present the report to Beijing and Hong Kong). That will still push through,” Carandang said.

The IIRC meeting with the President on Friday lasted from 5 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. although the President had to step out of the meeting from time to time to attend to other matters, Carandang said.

Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said the President wanted the report released as soon possible to avoid suspicions that some of its contents would be altered.

“The mere fact that we are giving it to the Chinese government proves that there is no change in the report,” Lacierda said.

Lacierda said Mr. Aquino was studying the report while preparing for his trip to the US. The President was carefully studying the report while editing his speeches for his engagements in New York and San Francisco, he said.

The Aquino administration drew widespread scorn for its officials’ handling of the hostage incident in Rizal Park, which left eight Hong Kong tourists and the hostage taker – a dismissed police officer – dead.

Hong Kong officials denounced the bungled rescue of the hostages and demanded a thorough investigation of the incident. In the report of the IIRC, at least 12 officials have been found liable for the clumsy police rescue operation that led to the deaths of the hostages.