House leaders agree: P-Noy won’t be invited

MANILA, Philippines - It’s final: the House of Representatives will not invite President Aquino to its hearings on the Mamasapano incident on April 7 and 8.

And if anyone would present a motion during the inquiry to invite the President, members from the majority will vote it down.

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. has informed Minority Leader Ronaldo Zamora that the House majority coalition will not allow an invitation to be issued for Aquino, Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II said yesterday.

“We met last Tuesday and we made it clear that the President will not be invited, that he has already made a sufficient explanation of his role in Mamasapano. The minority did not insist on having an invitation extended to the President,” he said.

Aside from Belmonte, Gonzales and Zamora, others who attended the meeting were Carol Jane Lopez of party-list group You Against Corruption and Poverty, Celso Lobregat of Zamboanga City, Rodolfo Biazon of Muntinlupa, Jeffrey Ferrer of Negros Occidental and Jim Hataman-Salliman of Basilan.

Ferrer and Salliman, as chairmen of the committees on public order and on peace and reconciliation, respectively, will jointly preside over the April hearings.

Gonzales said he expects that some militant party-list representatives would still insist on having the two committees invite Aquino.

“But any motion to that effect would be voted down,” he said.

Last weekend, Belmonte sent a text message to reporters: “Remember, we have had two exhaustive inquiries already. This is just to wrap up. Certainly, we have no intention of inviting him (Aquino) to the inquiry, but would welcome any information he would give.”

The Speaker was reacting to the proposal of Lopez, who belongs to Zamora’s minority group, for the hearing committees to invite Aquino.

Gonzales said it was also agreed during last Tuesday’s meeting that the April hearings would not touch on what the Senate and the PNP Board of Inquiry (BOI) have already investigated.

“It was the consensus that we should not waste time on things that the Senate and the BOI have tackled. The committees should take off from the Senate and BOI reports,” he said.

He said Ferrer and Salliman had promised that they would conduct orderly proceedings.

Rep. Elpidio Barzaga Jr. of Dasmariñas City in Cavite said he supports the decision of House leaders to block any invitation for Aquino to appear in the Mamasapano inquiry.

“We should respect the President’s wish. He declared in his Philippine National Police Academy speech on Thursday that that would be the last time he would speak on the issue. We should respect that,” he said.

He said he also supports the agreement for the hearing committees to focus on what the Senate and BOI inquiries have not covered.

Since the Senate and the BOI have tackled most issues, committee members should zero in on gaps in their reports, he added.

Ulterior motive

Barzaga also accused those asking President Aquino to apologize for the Mamasapano incident of having ulterior motives.

“Clearly, there’s malice behind his call. Their ulterior motive is to destroy the administration using the death of 44 policemen in Mamasapano, Maguindanao on Jan. 25,” he said.

“Their call for an apology is not only malicious but misplaced, because the issue being raised against the President is not even graft-related,” he said.

He said some of those suggesting that Aquino say sorry “have been affected by the administration’s campaign against corruption.”

“They have been exposed as having stolen money from public coffers, as having pocketed public funds,” he added without naming names.

Aquino’s critics renewed their call for an apology after the President’s Thursday speech at the Philippine National Police Academy in Cavite.

In his speech, the President reiterated that he was taking responsibility for the Mamasapano incident but stopped short of saying sorry.

Barzaga said Aquino was “very sincere and direct to the point” in his speech

“Once more, the President took responsibility. He declared he would bring this tragedy with him until his final day. He spoke the truth – the sadness brought about by the deaths of 44 Special Action Force (SAF) troopers could never be remedied by any speech or report,” he said.

The speech also showed Aquino’s human side when he asked for the public’s understanding for what happened in Mamasapano, he said.

He pointed out that the President’s acceptance of responsibility did not mean that he was admitting liability.

“The President is responsible, as Chief Executive, for the workings of government but he cannot be held liable for every error committed in the bureaucracy – from a simple typo error in a memo to the mistakes of those directly serving under him,” he stressed.

He added that the SAF mission to carry out a presidential directive for the capture of three suspected terrorists “was a success in the sense that the police killed their principal target.”

SAF commandos killed suspected Malaysian terrorist-bomb maker Zulkifli bir Hir, alias Marwan, but lost 44 men in ensuing firefights with guerillas belonging to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and its breakaway faction, the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters.

Barzaga joined fellow administration allies in calling for a closure to the Mamasapano incident.

He said Aquino’s critics would be beating a dead horse if they continue to harp on the issue.

Earlier, Eastern Samar Rep. Ben Evardone said he could not understand why some people still want the President to say sorry despite his taking responsibility for what happened in Mamasapano.

“He reiterated on Thursday that as the nation’s leader, he was the one ultimately responsible for the SAF mission and its results. He asked for understanding for whatever lapses he made, as he is only human like the rest of us. He also reiterated that the incident would forever be on his conscience,” he said.

“What more do we want from him? Do we want him to say sorry and beg for forgiveness? I think his critics just want to humiliate him,” he said.