Sen. Serge Osmeña III. NOY MORCOSO III/INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO
After a seven-hour hearing last week, Senate Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile failed to show enough evidence that would implicate President Benigno Aquino III in the Mamasapano tragedy, Senator Serge Osmeña said on Monday.
“No the president is not in trouble,” Osmeña told reporters when asked about his assessment on the last hearing conducted by the Senate on the Mamasapano incident.
READ: Enrile out to prove Aquino’s ‘direct’ involvement in Mamasapano
“Para sa akin yung ginawa nya sa Mamasapano, syempre may konting pagkakamali pero (For me, he (Aquino) committed slight mistakes in Mamasapano but) it’s not worth chasing… We leave it to some people who wanna give PNoy the death penalty over that. I think that should be too much,” he said.
Osmeña earlier said that it would be “deadly” if Enrile, who initiated the reopening of the Senate probe last week, could prove that the president did nothing to save the 44 Special Action Force (SAF) men, who perished from the said botched police operation in Mamasapano, Maguindanao last January 25, 2015.
READ: Enrile claim ‘deadly’ to Aquino
However, after the seven-hour hearing, Osmeña believes that Enrile was not able prove his case against the president.
“Enrile is a good lawyer, one of the best lawyers in this country. If after seven hours he was not able to prove his case, then I think he should accept that. There’s lack of evidence implicating the president in the tragedy that is Mamasapano,” he said.
“If he comes up with additional evidence, edi (that’s) good. People always want to know the truth. But if he’s unable to do that, then I don’t think based on what I saw and heard during the seven hours that there’s any case against the president,” the senator added.
READ: Enrile lays down 8 issues vs Aquino at new Mamasapano probe
Asked if a draft committee report on the incident was still right in its findings that the president was ultimately responsible for the tragedy, Osmeña simply noted that the report was a “collective” decision of the Senate “so we can’t just change that.”
“If there are changes to be made or to be proposed, Senator Enrile should make the recommendation, submit his amendments to Senator Poe,” he said, referring to Senator Grace Poe, who led the Senate probe on the incident as chair of the committee on public order.
The draft report, signed by majority members of the Senate, has yet to be presented on the floor for either adoption or rejection.
Osmeña said the recommendations in the report could be used by the government to take appropriations actions against those involved in the said operation. RAM