IIRC to accept Aquino verdict on hostage tragedy review findings

The government panel created to investigate the Aug. 23 Manila hostage tragedy is ready to accept President Benigno Aquino III's final decision on its recommendations on the matter. Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, who chairs the Incident Investigation and Review Committee, also said she has no hard feelings towards a Palace legal team that reviewed the IIRC findings. "We're [IIRC] just the creation of the president … so we will defer to the final decision of the president," De Lima said in an interview on dzRH radio, hours before Aquino would make public his verdict on the review committee's report. The IIRC submitted its initial findings to Aquino late last month, but the president ordered Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. and chief presidential legal counsel Eduardo de Mesa to review the report. Aquino created the IIRC to look into the Aug. 23 incident where eight Hong Kong tourists were killed along with their hostage-taker, dismissed Senior Inspector Rolando Mendoza.

De Lima appealed to some sectors not to sow intrigues between the IIRC and the Palace’s legal team headed by Ochoa and De Mesa. "The legal team's review of our report should not cause any friction between the IIRC and the Palace. The IIRC is aware its findings are recommendatory…," she said in Filipino, adding that the group is satisfied that President Aquino adopted most of its recommendations. Meanwhile, De Lima advised those who will be implicated in the final version of the report to be open-minded. "Sana maging open-minded sila, harapin anumang ang kaso na ipasasampa ni Presidente based on the IIRC report as reviewed and modified by the presidential legal team (Whoever will be implicated should be open-minded and face the charges based on the IIRC report, as reviewed and modified by the presidential legal team)," she said. Addendum De Lima said the IIRC will submit next week an addendum to its the report, which will contain additional statements of two survivors. Moreover, she said the IIRC will move on to the second part of its work, which involves an institutional and procedural review of protocols, manuals, and procedures to prevent a repeat of the Aug. 23 incident. De Lima said they will review rules of the National Police Commission (Napolcom) and the Philippine National Police's Internal Affairs Service (PNP-IAS) in handling administrative cases against police personnel. She noted that Mendoza had resorted to hostage-taking because he felt he was a victim of injustice. "We will review the rules of the Napolcom, IAS and relevant agencies to handle and dispose of administrative cases against PNP officers and personnel. Mendoza had felt he was a victim of injustice," she said in Filipino. Meanwhile, she said she will decide at the proper time whether to inhibit herself from the case should it reach the criminal prosecution stage. "At the proper time, I can always determine for myself if I need to inhibit," she said. She said the Justice secretary is not involved in determining probable cause but once it reaches her, "I will always have that option." — LBG/RSJ, GMANews.TV