Senator Juan Ponce Enrile. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/RICHARD A. REYES
Senate Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile demanded on Wednesday a full debate on the plenary of a committee report on the January 25 Mamasapano incident, thinking that “we’re hiding something.”
Enrile was under hospital arrest over plunder charges in connection with the pork barrel scam when the Senate committee of public order and dangerous drugs being headed by Senator Grace Poe conducted an investigation on the incident.
“In the confines of my hospital detention facility, my mind too was flooded with questions on the disturbing events and factors which apparently led to the tragic fate of the SAF 44,” he said when he took the floor on a question of personal and collective privilege.
He was referring to the 44 members of the Philippine National Police-Special Action Force (PNP-SAF) who perished from the police operation in Mamasapano, which targeted two suspected foreign terrorists.
“I understand the carnage started at dawn of Sunday, January 25, and lasted until late in the afternoon of that day. In those critical moments when the battle was apparently going on, I recall no word was uttered from the Palace, from the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines), and from the PNP (Philippine National Police),” Enrile said.
“None at all from any agency of the government or from the media. There was an ominous silence! Why? What happened? Was there a government paralysis during those tense moments?” he asked.
“Where was the Chief of Staff of the AFP as well as his General Staff? Did they know what was going on in Mamasapano? If they did, why was there no reaction, one way or the other?”
A few days after the incident, Enrile said, the survivors of the Mamasapano carnage were brought to the building where he was detained and stayed with him in that building for quite some time.
He said the survivors and their dependents had expressed to him their resentment and disenchantment “as it seemed to some of them that the death of the SAF 44 was now largely being exploited to serve political ends, some for political propaganda.”
This was the reason why Enrile took to the floor to find out the status of the committee report.
“I believe we owe it as a matter of solemn duty to the SAF members who perished, as well as to those who survived by the grace of the Almighty, and to their bereaved families who until now are crying for justice, to place this crucial matter into the Records of the Senate Plenary Session,” he said.
“They must know, as well, how each member of this Senate took their respective stands in the findings of the investigation and the specific recommendations contained in the report,” he added.
Poe immediately stood up and informed Enrile that the report, signed by 21 senators, had been transmitted to the plenary for debates.
“We submitted this committee report already and we’re waiting for the majority leader to schedule this for plenary debates. In fact, the Majority Leader himself has already manifested months ago that this will be scheduled and we’re awaiting that, Mr. President,” she said, referring to Majority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano.
It was then that Enrile moved that the report should be openly discussed in the plenary, saying, “Nothing is to be put under the rug. Everything must come out.”
“I’m demanding that every moment of those hours from dawn of Sunday when the event started until it ended that same day—the movement, the action the presence or the absence of every high official of government in this country must be accounted for…” he said.
“I’ve been long enough in this government to know this and there are a lot of questions that I’d like to ask. If we want to really be opened and transparent to the people, then we must do this otherwise; there will be suspicions that we are hiding something and I personally think that we’re hiding something,” Enrile added.
Cayetano said he has no objection to Enrile’s motion as he promised to schedule the report a full discussion of the plenary.