Poe’s baptism of fire: To lead Senate probe of C. de Oro blast

Senator Mary Grace Poe-Llamanzares. FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines – The  Senate committee on public order and dangerous drugs will start its  public hearing  on Wednesday into the Cagayan de Oro bombing late last month  that left eight  people  dead.

The hearing by the committee being headed by neophyte Senator Grace Poe scheduled at 1 p.m. was prompted by a privilege speech of Senator Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III.

It would be the first committee hearing to be conducted since the 16th Congress opened last July 22.

Invited in the hearing were Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II; Cagayan de Oro Mayor Oscar Moren; Police chief director general Alan Purisima and other police officials; Dante Jimenez, founding chairman/president of the Volunteers Crime Against Crime and Corruption; Alfonso Lim, president of Limketkai Center; Atty. Leo Olarte, president of the Philippine Medical Association; Dr. Eileen Aniceto, president of the Philippine College of Chest Physicians, among others.

Most of the victims in the Cagayan de Oro explosion, which occurred at a restaurant just outside Lim Ket Kai Mall in Cagayan de Oro, were doctors and pharmaceutical sales representatives who had just attended a national convention of lung-disease specialists at a nearby hotel.