Senate reopens Mamasapano probe

PHOTO by JULLIANE LOVE DE JESUS/INQUIRER.net

Upon Senate Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile’s request, the Senate reopened on Wednesday its investigation on the botched operation in Mamasapano that left 44 Special Action Force (SAF) men and several others dead.

READ: Senate to reopen Mamasapano probe on Jan. 27

The reopening of the investigation at the Senate led by Senator Grace Poe as head of the committee on public order, along with the committees on peace, unification and reconciliation and finance, came a year after the bloody incident happened last January 25, 2015.

READ: Poe: Senate to reopen Mamasapano probe on operation’s 1st anniversary

Present at the reopening of the probe by the Senate committees were former Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin, former Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Alan Purisima, former PNP Officer in Charge Leonardo Espina, and former Special Action Force (SAF) Director Getulio Napeñas, among others.

Among the senators who came ahead of the 10 a.m. schedule hearing were Enrile and Senator Teofisto Guingona, chairman of the committee on peace, unification and reconciliation.

READ: Why return to Mamasapano?

In pushing for the reopening of the investigation, Enrile claimed that he has evidence to prove that President Benigno Aquino III was “actively” and “directly” involved in the planning and preparation of the Mamasapano incident and that “he did not do anything at all to save” the SAF men, who perished from it.

READ: Enrile out to prove Aquino’s ‘direct’ involvement in Mamasapano

In March last year, the committees released a report on the incident that found the president, among others, “ultimately liable” for the botched Mamasapano incident. RAM