Poe welcomes Duterte commission on Mamasapano

Pictures of the 44 Special Action Force men killed in the Mamasapano incident on Jan. 25, 2014, are displayed outside the gates of Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/RAFFY LERMA

Senator Grace Poe welcomed on Wednesday the creation of an independent commission that would look into the Mamasapano incident as she recognized the “limitations” of the Senate probe she conducted during the last Congress.

As former chair of the Senate committee on public order and dangerous drugs, Poe led the investigation on the Mamasapano operation that left 44 Special Action Force (SAF) dead two years ago. Her committee later came out with a report that found former President Benigno Aquino III ultimately responsible for it.

“Given the nature and inherent limitations of a legislative investigation, it is the prerogative of the President to create a commission for its reinvestigation that may hopefully add to what had been unearthed previously given the greater powers of the Executive and under much different political circumstances,” she said in a statement.

But despite the limitations of the Senate probe, Poe noted that the Office of the Ombudsman had “essentially adopted” the recommendation of the committee with the recent filing of charges against against former Philippine National Police Director General Alan Purisima and SAF Director Getulio Napeñas.

“Our report was based on testimonies given by all available living persons/witnesses then whose attendance the committee had the power to require, and who were all involved or have knowledge of the Mamasapano police operation, as well as all relevant documents gathered after an exhaustive series of hearings,” she said.

Poe issued the statement when sought for comment on President Rodrigo Duterte’s order to create an independent body that would again look into the Mamasapano debacle.

In calling for the reinvestigation by an independent body, Duterte also challenged Aquino to come clean and answer lingering questions on the operation.

READ: Duterte hits Aquino on Mamasapano

“I’m addressing myself to former President Aquino. I don’t have any quarrel with you. I don’t want to disturb your life now that you are retired … But all the investigations unfortunately left a void and unless we address the issues and find the reasons why, (only) then will the families of the SAF 44 have a respite,” the President was quoted in the media as saying.

“Otherwise, they will bring to their grave the hurt and agony that they had to endure losing a husband, a father, a brother. The investigation, you could have completed it,” he added. CBB

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