Executive Secretary: Palace to simplify IIRC report

Claiming that the hostage probe report was "complicated" even for lawyers, Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa said the Palace will only simplify it and not alter the recommendations made by the Incident Investigation and Review Committee (IIRC). On Monday, before leaving for his working visit to the United States, President Benigno Simeon Aquino III said the IIRC report was not yet released to the public in full because he has asked the Palace legal team to review it first. On Thursday, Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa said Aquino asked him and the presidential legal counsel to study the facts presented in the IIRC report to help the President make intelligent positions and informed decisions. "We will not make any recommendation on the recommendation made by the Incident Investigation and Review Committee (IIRC)," he told the House appropriations committee hearing on the P4.075 billion proposed budget of the Office of the President. "The report is long and legal issues are included. It will be quite complicated even for lawyers to understand so the President has the right to fully understand what has been reported and what really transpired," Ochoa said. "We will explain to the President the legal implication of the report so that he will be ready to connect and assess if the report jives with the facts," he added. Ochoa said they will only make a recommendation when the President asks them to do so. "If we will be asked for our opinion, we will tell give him our opinion. If we will be asked, we will answer and make recommendation," he said. He said the group will present the report to Aquino in a chronological order based on the way testimonies were given and the way evidence were presented. During the congressional hearing, House Minority leader Edcel Lagman asked Ochoa if he has finished reading the report. Ochoa answered, "not in its entirety. My office is loaded with documents. I plan to finish it whole day Friday." "We'd rather err on the side of caution. We would like to take extraordinary care in making out the report. We don't want to be reckless," he said. –VVP, GMANews.TV