Senate postpones first hearing on San Mateo raid

The Senate has postponed the first hearing on the controversy surrounding the 30,000 election returns seized by lawmen from the rented house of former National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) handwriting expert Segundo Tabayoyong in San Mateo, Rizal last Aug. 10.

Sen. Manuel Villar Jr., chairman of the Senate committee on public order and illegal drugs which will handle the inquiry, called the Senate Secretariat yesterday to inform committee members that he could not preside over today’s scheduled hearing because he is currently in China on a working trip.

The Senate initially summoned Tabayoyong and Interior Secretary Angelo Reyes to appear before the hearing to shed light on the raid and seizure of the election documents. The opposition had claimed the raid was conducted without a search warrant.

Among the other officials summoned are Brig. Gen. Marlu Quevedo of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP), Armed Forces deputy chief of staff for intelligence Commodore Tirso Danga and Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) director Chief Superintendent Ricardo Dapat.

The chief of the CIDG raiding team Superintendent Wilben Mayor was also summoned along with CIDG-National Capital Region chief Asher Dolina and Carmela Cabuhat, owner of the apartment Tabayoyong had been renting.

Villar has calendared the hearing in concurrence with Resolution 318 filed by Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. calling for the investigation of the San Mateo raid.

Pimentel claimed the raid was illegal because it was carried out without a search warrant. — Christina Mendez