Over 20 resource persons invited to new Mamasapano probe

MORE than 20 resource persons — former and incumbent Palace, police and military officials— have been invited by the Senate to attend the reopening of its investigation on the Mamasapano incident on January 25, 2015 that left at 44 elite policemen and several others dead.

The list of 24 names invited in the hearing on January 27, 2016 was released to the media on Wednesday by the office of Senator Grace Poe, chair of the committee on public order, the lead committee on the Mamasapano probe.

Poe’s committee, along with the committees on peace, unification, and reconciliation, and finance, had already concluded the investigation on the incident. But Senate Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile moved to reopen the probe, citing new evidence that allegedly showed President Benigno Aquino’s active and direct involvement on the botched police operation.

Among the resource persons invited to appear for the first time in the January 27 hearing were Herminio Coloma Jr. and Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief of Staff General Hernando Delfin Carmelo Iriberri, said Poe’s staff member.

Also included in the list were Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr., former Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin, former AFP Chief of Staff Gregorio Catapang, resigned Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Alan Purisima, former PNP Officer-in-Charge Leonardo Espina, incumbent PNP Chief Ricardo Marquez, Police Director Benjamin Magalong, chairman of the Board of Inquiry, and former PNP-Special Action Force (SAF) Director Getulio Napeñas.

Former PNP-SAF Deputy Director Noli Taliño, Police/Chief Superintendent (P/CF) Edgar Orduña Basbas, P/Senior Superintendent Hendrix Mangaldan, P/SSupt. Richard Dela Rosa, P/Supt. Micharl John Mangahis, P/Supt. Abraham Abayari, P/Supt. Raymund Train, P/C Inspector Recaredo Marasigan, Police Officer 2 Christopher Lala, Major General Edmundo Pangilinan, commander of the Philippine Army’ 6th Infantry Division, Lt. General Rustico Guerrero, commander of the Western Mindanao Command, and National Security Adviser Cesar Garcia.

The staff member said some of the invited resource persons had already appeared in previous closed-door hearings of the Senate but their first time if they would be presented in an open hearing next week.