Contact Details

Rm. N-411, House of Representatives, Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines
+63 2 931 5497, +63 2 931 5001 local 7370

Committee on Public Order and Safety and the Committee on Good Government to continue to Investigate on the fatal hostage-taking incident

Press Statements
  • Office of Rep. Edcel C. Lagman
  • Tel No. 4155455
  • Mobile No. 0918-9120137
  • 24 September 2010

 

          While the House of Representatives is inordinately protective of its power of impeachment against perceived intrusions of the Supreme Court, it forfeits with alacrity its power of inquiry in aid of legislation purportedly in deference to the Office of the President.

          The House leadership uses two contrasting standards in resisting the Supreme Court’s power of judicial review in impeachment proceedings, on the one hand and abandoning to the Executive its primary function of conducting Congressional investigations, on the other.

          I propose that the Committee on Public Order and Safety must immediately proceed in conducting an investigation together with the Committee on Good Government on the hostage rescue fiasco which occurred on 23 August 2010.

          The proposal is contained in a letter dated 23 September 2010, one month after the hostage-taking incident, to Rep. Pablo John Garcia, Chairman of the Committee on Public Order and Safety, with copies furnished to Speaker Feliciano Belmonte, Jr. and Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II.

          It should be recalled that the Committee on Public Order and Safety deferred its own investigation reportedly in deference and courtesy to the then projected investigation to be conducted by the Incident Investigation and Review Committee (IIRC) as ordered by President Benigno Aquino III. The IIRC has already rendered its report, albeit without furnishing a copy to the House of Representatives.

          No less than 11 resolutions have been filed by concerned Members of the House of Representatives urging the conduct of a legislative probe on the fatal hostage-taking incident, all of which have been referred by the Committee on Rules to the Committee on Public Order and Safety.

          The House leadership cannot simply disregard and shield these resolutions reminiscent of the precipitate pigeonholing of dozens of bills proposing the postponement of the barangay elections simply because the President wanted the village polls to push through as scheduled this October.

          The House must forthwith conduct its own inquiry for the following reasons:

          1.  It is the inherent right of the House to hold investigations in aid of legislation which is not the same purpose of the inquiry conducted by the IIRC constituted by President Aquino.

2. The House has also the authority to investigate, through the Committee on Good Government, acts of malfeasance, misfeasance and nonfeasance committed by government officials and employees.

3.  The House has not been furnished until now with the full IIRC report.

4.  The IIRC report is incomplete, inadequate and faulty even as it failed to investigate ranking members of the Cabinet who may have been responsible and accountable for the fiasco and exempted them from possible culpability.

              The House probe will not duplicate the IIRC investigation but would instead improve and amplify the same even as the principal purpose is in aid of legislation.The question is not whether the House would ultimately receive the full report but that propriety and courtesy demand that a co-equal body like the House must be given immediately the complete and unabridged report as submitted by the IIRC to the President one week ago and also by the Department of foreign Affairs to the Chinese ambassador.