MANILA, Philippines - President Aquino’s role, as well as his actions before, during and after the covert police operations in Mamasapano will be tackled by the Senate once it releases its committee report, Sen. Grace Poe said yesterday.
Poe, chair of the panel investigating the Mamasapano incident, said the panel would discuss the President’s involvement in the operations.
“All those with involvement that were mentioned as part of the leadership, definitely we need to have a response about their participation, and what were the shortcomings here. Up to the levels of involvement in the operation will be included in our committee report, what were the gaps or the right things done,” Poe said.
Poe also assured the public that the Senate would not be coming out with a “watered down” report amid criticisms that some administration lawmakers tried to save the President from any liability on the incident.
Poe apologized to all those who may get hit by the Senate committee report, adding, “We will just do our jobs.”
Poe said the Senate panel would come out with a committee report by March 16 before Congress goes into the Lenten break.
After five public hearings and several executive sessions, Poe said the Senate would also release portions of the topics or issues discussed during the closed-door sessions.
The key players of the operation – including resigned Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Alan Purisima and police Special Action Force (SAF)’s Director Getulio Napeñas and Supt. Raymond Train – gave their testimonies before the senators in an executive session, citing issues involving national security.
Sources earlier revealed the involvement of the US military in Oplan Exodus that was made known during one of the executive sessions. “We will also release questions on issues, for example, of foreign involvement that was also mentioned in the public hearing, but we will present it in a more orderly way in the committee report,” Poe said.
Poe explained that the Senate body would also be coming out with some details on how the top police officials and the SAF carried out the operations.
She stressed the details to be released will not have any impact on the country’s national security.
Some of the issues like intelligence information, including the identity of the informant, will not be publicly divulged because of the sensitivity of the information, Poe said.
Poe added Purisima has declined to sign a waiver for the release of his phone records to allow the Senate committee to determine the extent of the President’s knowledge of the Mamasapano operation.
Poe said a call was made to Purisima to ask him for a waiver after Smart Communications could not provide records of the text messages sent and received by the phone number assigned to him.
Philstar
