Militant solon questions Aquino sincerity

By: DJ Yap - 10 years ago

Bayan Muna Representative Neri Colmenares. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines–A lawmaker is skeptical about the sincerity of the gesture of President Benigno Aquino III to approve the release of the transcript of his text messages with disgraced former police chief Alan Purisima about the ill-fated “Oplan Exodus” in January.

Bayan Muna Representative Neri Colmenares on Saturday said the public should be able to see Aquino’s communications with his officials not only from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. of Jan. 25, the day of the Mamasapano debacle, which left 67 dead, 44 of them elite police commandos.

“If we want to get to the truth fast and without favor, we need a complete forensic analysis of all the cellphones of President Aquino as well as all the other officials involved [in] the Mamasapano incident,” Colmenares said.

“But if President Aquino would submit his cellphones for forensic analysis even for the specific period from Jan. 8-Jan. 26,2015 then that would be a start,” added senior deputy minority leader..

He said the best thing for Aquino to do was to appear personally at the House of Representatives during its inquiry into the Mamasapano incident.

The chamber will resume its probe on April 7 and 8, with some lawmakers indicating their intention to invite the President.

But Malacañang has prevaricated on whether Aquino would appear, saying it would leave it to the lawmakers to decide “how best to approach it [asking the President to provide his testimony] given that the President is the head of a separate and coequal branch.”

Colmenares said Aquino owed it to the people to appear personally during the probe to help shed light into what really happened.

“As it is though, it would be best for President Aquino to attend the upcoming House probe on April 7-8 and tell all he knows on the Mamasapano incident. He owes it not just to the victims of the Mamasapano incident but the whole Filipino people as well,” he said.