Poe: Executive session with ex-SAF chief more ‘honest’ but won’t disclose details

MANILA, Philippines —  Senators  spent almost four  hours on Monday listening to the testimony of relieved Philippine  National Police-Special Action Force  Director  Getulio  Napeñas in an executive session.

Sen. Grace Poe, who is leading the Senate probe as head of the committee on public order, said the closed-door meeting started at 1:15 p.m. and ended at 5:00 p.m.

But Poe was mum about the issues discussed during the meeting, except saying that it was “very productive,” “free,” and “honest.”

“I felt our resource person was much more comfortable,” she told reporters.

Asked why the meeting with Napeñas took almost four hours,  Poe said: “For one, we didn’t actually time; more than five minutes were given to answer the questions. It was more informal, the exchanges were more random. We went into many details because we only had one resource person. We told him to narrate many different things.”

She also refused to say whether or not the alleged involvement of the United States in the  Mamasapano incident last Jan. 25  had been confirmed during the executive session with  Napeñas.

“I will not spell out the details of the executive session until we have come up with a consensus on which topics can be made available,” Poe said.

It was Napeñas who requested for an executive session after Senator Loren Legarda asked during last week’s hearing of the Senate why the Philippines had to send the finger of Zulkfli bin Hir also known as “Manwar” to the US.

The senator said they would resume their executive session at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, this time to listen to resigned PNP Chief Director General Alan Purisima and Police Superintendent Fernando Mendez Jr., director for intelligence group.