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.
Philstar
