Aquino: Govt tracing source of leaked review of IIRC report

REINA MERCEDES, Isabela — President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III said Friday the government is tracing the source of supposedly leaked copies of Malacañang's review of the Incident Investigation and Review Committee (IIRC) report on the August 23 hostage incident. In an ambush interview here, Aquino said there appears to be leaked copies of the Palace legal review stating whether Malacañang is adopting the IIRC's recommendations. In September, the IIRC conducted marathon hearings to determine who must be sanctioned for the poor handling of the hostage crisis that resulted in the deaths of eight Chinese tourists from Hong Kong and the hostage-taker, dismissed police officer Rolando Mendoza. The government is "actually tracing already who had copies" of the Palace legal review that was reported by some media outfits, Aquino said. However, the president said there were different versions of the Palace review because he wasn't satisfied with the original review submitted by Executive Secretary Paquito "Jojo" Ochoa Jr. and Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Eduardo de Mesa. Aquino said the original wasn't specific enough so he had it revised. Aquino said he and the Palace's lawyers had a "long discourse" over the legal review because they want to make sure there are no legal infirmities. "For it to be a criminal offense, there has to be a crime that was committed that is based on a particular law," the president said. "Unfortunately maraming instances hindi maliwanag na may specific na batas na na-violate (Unfortunately there were many instances when it's not clear if there was any specific law violated)." Malacanang is expected to release the Palace legal review, as well as the IIRC's recommendations, early next week. De Mesa said in an interview on Thursday that there were "not much" changes in the IIRC recommendations. "We are upholding most of the recommendations or just a realignment of certain charges," he said. De Mesa refused to divulge details, but answered in the affirmative when asked if the Palace added penalties other than those the IIRC has recommended. Revelations from unnamed sources Unnamed sources in Malacañang earlier said Ochoa and De Mesa have already finished their review of the IRRC report. The sources, who requested anonymity, claimed that some of the recommendations of the IIRC, headed by Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, were modified. The modifications cited by the sources, however, were different from the ones mentioned by other media outfits. Here are some of the statements made by sources from Malacañang:

Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim will reportedly be slapped only with administrative charges, while the criminal charges recommended by the IIRC will no longer be pursued;

Interior and Local Government Undersecretary Rico Puno, a close friend of the president, will allegedly no longer face the administrative charges recommended against him;

the recommended penalties for former Philippine National Police Jesus Verzosa and Manila Vice-Mayor Isko Moreno were reportedly removed; According to the sources, the legal team reportedly did not change anything with the recommended administrative charges against the following:

Manila Police District (MPD) chief Superintendent Rodolfo Magtibay;

National Capital Region Police Office chief Director Leocadio Santiago;

Superintendent Orlando Yebra, chief negotiator during the hostage crisis, and

Chief Inspector Santiago Pascual, head of the MPD Special Weapons and Tactics team. The sources likewise claimed that the Palace legal team decided just to leave with the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas the possible sanctions on media outfits and personalities tagged as liable in the IIRC report. These include Radyo Mo Nationwide anchors Michael Rogas and Erwin Tulfo, DZXL station manager Jake Maderazo, as well as television networks ABS-CBN, GMA-7 and TV5. –VVP, GMANews.TV