The innocent won't be charged in Aug. 23 tragedy — Valte

Malacañang will make sure that the innocent will not be charged nor implicated in the Aug. 23 hostage-taking incident where eight mostly Hong Kong nationals died including the hostage taker, a former police senior inspector. President Benigno Aquino III made it clear he wants the findings and subsequent charges to stand in court, Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said in an interview on state-run dzRB radio. “Ang gusto ng Pangulo makapag-file ng kaso na magiging… na tatayo sa korte at 'di madi-dismiss. Ayaw ng Pangulo mag file ng kaso for publicity (What the President wants is to be able to file a case that will be… that can stand in court and won’t be dismissed. He does not want charges filed for publicity)," Valte said. The Palace will make public Monday the findings of its legal team on the review of the Aug. 23 incident by the Incident Investigation and Review Committee that was tasked to review the tragedy. Justice Secretary Leila de Lima was head of the review committee, while Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. and chief presidential legal counsel Eduardo de Mesa were the main people of the legal team. “One more thing we want in this: To make sure that the case that will be filed is correct and that the innocent will not be implicated so that the work is not wishy-washy," Valte said in the interview. “We are also making sure for the sake of the personalities involved," she added. Valte also said that there is an ongoing investigation on the leak of the supposed results of the final IIRC report. “Paiimbestigahan niya ang leak. Sino ang gagawa ng pagimbestiga o ano ang resulta di natin alam (The President will have the leak probed. Who who will do the investigation or what are the results? We don’t know yet)," she said. —VS, GMANews.TV