House starts probe on Batasan break-ins

MANILA, Philippines -  A fact-finding committee of the House of Representatives starts its inquiry today into the alleged break-ins staged by police officers at the Batasang Pambansa complex in Quezon City in 2005.

“There will be no sacred cows. We will be fearless but objective,” Deputy Speaker Erin Tañada, the head of the panel, said yesterday.

He said Senior Superintendent Rafael Santiago, who admitted to leading a police team that carried out the raids on the Batasan, would be his committee’s first witness.

“We will make an informed determination on whether or not the alleged break-ins actually occurred and the circumstances attendant thereto, and then submit a report, including recommendations, to the House,” Tañada said.

The members of the fact-finding committee formed by Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. are Reps. Florencio Noel, accounts committee chairman; Elpidio Barzaga Jr. of Cavite, who chairs the committee on suffrage and electoral reform; Senior Deputy Majority Leader Rodolfo Fariñas, Pablo John Garcia of Cebu, Jerry Treñas of Iloilo, and Minority Leader Edcel Lagman.

Santiago claimed that then Philippine National Police (PNP) chief and now Zambales Gov. Hermogenes Ebdane ordered them to raid the Batasan and to switch genuine election returns with manufactured ones.

He said he and his men entered the compound for three nights to do the switching intended to make sure that then President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo won in the election protest filed by the late Fernando Poe Jr.

Santiago said the raids were conducted after the completion of the congressional canvass of votes for president and vice president and after Arroyo was proclaimed winner.

He said they coordinated the transgressions with the head of the police contingent guarding the Batasan complex.

Tañada said they would focus their inquiry on the supposed break-ins as these affect the integrity and security of the House.

He said their mandate does not include the alleged election and canvassing fraud committed in 2004.