Enrile: No peeking for Palace at hearing questions

Senator Juan Ponce Enrile. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/EDWIN BACASMAS

SENATE Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile Sunday rejected Malacañang’s move to ask him to submit in advance the questions he will be asking Cabinet members at the Jan. 27 Senate inquiry into the Mamasapano massacre.

In a radio interview, Enrile said Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. was wrong in saying that the Palace could get his questions in advance.

He said that kind of arrangement only applied to the question hour in Senate plenary sessions and not to committee hearings “in aid of legislation.”

The Senate is reopening its inquiry into the massacre of Special Action Force (SAF) commandos by Moro Islamic Liberation Front and other rebel guerrillas in Mamasapano, Maguindanao, on Jan. 25 last year. Forty-four SAF men were killed in the encounter.

“I cannot give my questions in advance,” Enrile said, adding that apparently the Palace wanted to avoid the hearing.

He said it was “impractical” to give the questions in advance and his questions were not only for the Cabinet members but also for the police and military officials.

Enrile said his questions would be answerable by a “yes” or a “no.”

“It’s up to them. If they want to sink in the quagmire, that’s up to them,” he said, referring to the Palace.

The Senate committee on public order reset its hearing to Jan. 27 from Jan. 25, the day the PNP will commemorate the first anniversary of the Mamasapano massacre.

Enrile said it would be up to the committee headed by Sen. Grace Poe to decide what action to take if the Palace would not cooperate in the inquiry.

“I will show very clearly what happened during the police operations,” he said, adding that one could easily piece together what took place based on the text exchanges of the officials involved, including President Aquino.

Enrile reiterated that his focus would be on what the President did on that fateful day, when he skipped his family’s celebration of the birthday of his mother, the late President Corazon Aquino, and flew to Zamboanga City with top government and military officials.

Enrile repeated that he did not bear a grudge against the President or anyone else. “I pity him because he carries a big responsibility,” he said of Mr. Aquino.

Enrile clarified it was the SAF survivors who looked for him when they were at the PNP hospital in Camp Crame to tell him about the incident.

At the time, Enrile was detained on plunder charges for alleged misuse of his pork barrel funds. He was released on bail in August last year.