Belmonte rejects proposal for House probe on hostage incident

Refusing to be a "copycat," House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr, on Thursday rejected the proposal of the minority bloc for the chamber to conduct a separate probe on the bloody August 23 hostage incident. “Let's not be a copycat of anybody. Kung meron na nag-iimbestiga unless you can say na mali ang imbestigasyo na yan (If someone is already conducting an investigation, unless you can say the investigation is wrong), why jump into that? There must be a lot of things that we can investigate in this chamber," Belmonte said in a press conference. On the other hand, Belmonte expressed openness on the conduct of an inquiry on the illegal numbers game jueteng if someone could present evidence. He even called the investigation that would be conducted by the House as an “exercise in self-mortification, self-flagellation." “I think there is no need to repeat the whole thing. I think we should get on and I think we have learned a lesson from it," he said. He believed the report of the Incident Investigation and Review Committee (IIRC) had been exhaustive. The House leader also assured that the chamber will be furnished with a complete copy of the report. “It will definitely come out. Let me assure you that the whole report will definitely come out. I’m 100 percent sure. We will demand it if they don't give it but I’m sure that within a few days after the President arrives, we will be furnished, you the media and me here in the House," he said. Belmonte added it is not in the character of President Benigno Simeon Aquino III to hide documents. “Wala naman sa character ni President Noy yung nagtatago sometimes nga eh to a fault na bakit mo sinasabi lahat yan," he said. (It is not in the character of President Noy to hide anything, sometimes to a fault, that makes people wonder why he is saying those things.) On Wednesday, House minority leader Edcel Lagman urged his colleagues to push through with the investigation to “ensnare those primary liable" for the mishandling of the August 23 hostage incident. He said the chamber set aside the 11 resolutions filed calling for the probe in deference to the IIRC probe, which he claimed, turned out to be insufficient and inadequate. The IIRC conducted marathon hearings to determine who were responsible for the mishandling of the August 23 hostage incident in Manila. On that day, a dismissed senior police inspector, Rolando Mendoza, hijacked a bus carrying 21 Hong Kong tourists and four Filipinos. Mendoza was demanding for his reinstatement and the dismissal of a pending case against him in the Office of the Ombudsman. At the end of an 11-hour standoff, Mendoza and eight Hong Kong tourists were killed. The IIRC submitted its report to Aquino last Friday. Malacañang provided the Chinese embassy a copy of the report before making portions of the report public on Monday. On jueteng Meanwhile, on the issue of jueteng, Belmonte said he is bothered that the name of the House and some of its members were being dragged and tainted. “I’m bothered but I believe that you know people should not just say it and yeah let's face it din naman. Pwede din naman yung congressional inquiry just to find out if there are congressmen involved," he said. He added, "You know it's so easy to name names. These are all allegations and as somebody said it's so easy to make a list. This is a regular ritual here, people are always coming around every so often and say ito yung mga names e wala namang ebidensya na inihaharap (they would say these are the names but they don't present any evidence)." Belmonte is also against the legalization of jueteng. "It's victimizing the small guy because you know if it is true that these hundreds and even billions of pesos are being made in jueteng then it's coming from somebody's pocket and I think it's from the poor people," he said. –VVP, GMANews.TV