MANILA, Philippines – The Senate has set the reopening of the Mamasapano inquiry on the first anniversary of the incident on Jan. 25.
Sen. Grace Poe, who chairs the Senate committee on public order and dangerous drugs, cited the requests of some lawmakers in reopening the probe.
Poe set the inquiry at 10 a.m. on Jan. 25 after the chairman of the Senate committee on rules, Alan Peter Cayetano, announced there were no obstacles that would prevent the reopening of the inquiry.
“It’s good that the rules committee gave a go-signal that additional hearings can be called, in response to Minority Leader (Juan Ponce) Enrile’s request to call such, citing his personal information, and possibly new evidence,” Poe said.
She said the reopening would not affect the previous findings contained in Committee Report No. 120, which found President Aquino “ultimately responsible” for the deaths of the 44 police commandos of the Special Action Force (SAF).
“Let it be stated as I manifested before, the new hearings will not affect or void our earlier findings. Our committee report has been signed by 21 members. We have a leeway to allow new evidence. We will schedule the additional hearing on Jan. 25 in the session hall of the Senate at 10 a.m,” Poe announced.
Malacañang sees nothing wrong with the decision of the Senate to resume its Mamasapano inquiry.
Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Herminio Coloma said the Senate is mandated to conduct such inquiry as part of its oversight functions.
For his part, Interior Secretary Mel Senen Sarmiento said the previous findings of the Senate regarding the incident should be respected.
Sarmiento pointed out the probe has gone through several processes and the Department of Justice has filed charges against those allegedly involved in the killing of the 44 SAF commandos.
On Monday, Cayetano said there are no legal obstacles and took note of Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III’s statement that he is amenable to the motion to reopen the investigation.
Cayetano said the rules committee took into consideration Section 32 of the Senate rules which provides that: “when a report is returned to a committee or is transmitted to another, unless it is returned for purposes of conducting further public hearings on new matters arising after the report, all previous proceedings in connection therewith shall be deemed to be void and that matter in question shall revert to its original status.”
Enrile earlier asked his colleagues during session if he can interpellate on the committee report No. 120 since he was under detention at the height of the Senate hearings last year.
In Poe’s report, Aquino was found ‘ultimately responsible’ for the deaths of 44 SAF personnel.
Almost 400 police commandos had swooped before dawn in the operation to capture Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan, and local confederate Basit Usman in a remote village in Mamasapano, Maguindanao on Jan. 25.
But after killing Marwan, the SAF commandos were ambushed by heavily armed Muslim rebels and villagers.
A total of 44 policemen were killed and 12 others were wounded in the attack.
Operation Plan: Exodus went haywire after operatives supposedly failed to coordinate properly with the military as then SAF commander Chief Supt. Getulio Napeñas’ plea for reinforcement was apparently ignored by his military counterparts.
President Aquino, commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police, has repeatedly refused to admit command responsibility for the killing and instead put the blame on Napeñas.
Coloma said Aquino had no regrets when he allowed then suspended PNP chief Alan Purisima to supervise by remote control the police operation that led to the death of the 44 elite police troopers. – Delon Porcalla, Cecille Suerte Felipe