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Govt may bare hostage crisis action plan next week — PNoy
The government may make public by the middle of next week an action plan dealing with the Aug. 23 Manila hostage tragedy, President Benigno Aquino III said Saturday. Aquino told reporters in Manila that the Palace is still clarifying some of the issues in the report of the Incident Investigation and Review Committee (IIRC). “Most of it [IIRC recommendations] in-adopt pero marami rin talaga pag pumasok ka doon sa actual implementation baka may kinakapos na mga batas na magpe-penalize sa certain acts or omissions," Aquino said. (Most of the IIRC recommendations were adopted but there were really many points, when you go into the actual implementation, wherein some laws might be deficient that could penalize certain acts or ommissions.) He indicated the government may make public the implementation plan in the middle of the coming week.
Aquino had the IIRC report reviewed by Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. and chief presidential legal counsel Eduardo de Mesa before going on a week-long working visit to the United States. “So expectation namin, by next week mai-present na rin [and implementation plan] sa ibang member ng IIRC para may consensus, at by mid-week ilalabas na namin," Aquino said. (So our expectation is that by next week, we can already present the implementation plan to the other IIRC members so that there’s consensus, and by mid-week, we can make it public.) In the Aug. 23 Quirino Grandstand hostage drama that unfolded in Rizal Park right in central Manila, eight Hong Kong tourists died along with their hostage-taker, dismissed Senior Inspector Rolando Mendoza. The bungled handling of the crisis strained ties between the Philippines and China, with Hong Kong issuing a “black" travel alert that discouraged travel to the Philippines. Impressed The submission of the IIRC report on Sept. 17 has nevertheless eased some of the strained Philippine-China ties. Last week, Chinese Ambassador Liu Jianchao praised the investigating body — a five-member committee headed by Justice Secretary Leila de Lima and co-chaired by Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo — for drawing up a “comprehensive and responsible" report. "We are impressed by the professionalism and the sense of responsibility of the investigating team... It was with a short period of time but tremendous amount of work was put in," Liu said The IIRC earlier submitted to Aquino its 83-page initial report, a portion of which was made public last August 20 and drew mixed reactions — with some praising it for holding 12 government and media officials liable while others criticized the President for withholding the last portion of the report on "Accountability and Recommendations." The IIRC later included an addendum composed of the testimonies of two Hong Kong nationals who survived and the delayed ballistics report by the Philippine National Police (PNP). Although Aquino said he started reading the report before his working visit to the United States from September 20 onwards, the remaining parts of the report were kept withheld since Palace lawyers still had to review it. Report leaks On the day the IIRC report was officially submitted to Aquino, an unofficial version containing the recommendations from the unreleased portion of the report leaked to the media. Reportedly a mere draft, the leaked copy of IIRC recommendations revealed just the same that most of the 12 liable individuals were recommended to be slapped with administrative charges. In the unofficial copy, media workers cited by the IIRC as also liable were referred to the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas and other media watchdogs, which were expected to review their conduct during the hostage-taking incident based on journalists' ethical standards. The same leak also showed that of the 12 people, only Lim was recommended to be charged criminally for the bloodbath. The Palace had signified it did not intend to investigate the source of the leak. Other probes The IIRC was the only body authorized to conduct a probe on the August 23 fiasco. The Senate, which had earlier set into motion a separate probe, postponed its inquiry in deference to the IIRC. With the IIRC recommendations now being readied for executive action and public release, senators are expected to resume their stalled probe soon. The Office of Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez, one of the 12 officials found liable for the incident, had also said it intends to conduct its own investigation on the fiasco. Aside from Gutierrez, other officials in hot water for the incident, according to the IIRC report were:
- Undersecretary Rico Puno of the Department of Interior and Local Government;
- Former Philippine National Police Chief Director General Jesus Verzosa;
- Former Manila Police District (MPD) Chief Superintendent Rodolfo Magtibay;
- National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) chief Director Leocadio Santiago;
- Manila City Mayor Alfredo Lim and Vice Mayor Isko Moreno;
- Negotiator, Superintendent Orlando Yebra;
- Manila Police Special Weapons and Tactics Unit head Chief Inspector Santiago Pascual; and
- Erwin Tulfo and Michael Rogas, broadcast journalists of Radyo Mo Nationwide.
