Palace to adopt most IIRC actions

MANILA, Philippines - President Aquino yesterday said most of the recommendations of the incident investigation and review committee (IIRC) that probed the Aug. 23 hostage-taking incident would be adopted and released this coming week.

Mr. Aquino had the IIRC report reviewed by Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. and Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Eduardo de Mesa as some of the recommendations were “not specific.”

Mr. Aquino said he is likely to adopt the recommendations of the IIRC to charge top officials over the hostage fiasco that left eight Hong Kong tourists dead.

“We’re going to release the action plan, the implementation plan, sometime middle of next week... most of it (recommendations) would be adopted,” he said.

The President made the statements as he led the distribution of health insurance cards to the residents of the Baseco compound in Tondo, Manila yesterday where Mayor Alfredo Lim was present.

He praised Lim for his achievements in Manila but later clarified that it had nothing to do with the IIRC recommendations.

The IIRC report, completed two weeks ago and partially released, recommended that either administrative or criminal charges be filed against a dozen people for lapses related to the fiasco.

Lim, a former national police chief and other senior police officials, an undersecretary of the interior, and two broadcast journalists were among those named in the report.

Mr. Aquino said some of the recommendations of the IIRC were not specific.

“We need (to know) what laws were specifically violated and what were the corresponding penalties. What should be the process? That is what we are trying to break down since (Friday until yesterday),” Mr. Aquino said.

“Most of it (recommendations) was adopted but there were also a lot wherein when you get into the actual implementation, it was lacking on the laws that would penalize certain actions or omissions,” he added.

The President said they expect to present the report to the members of the IIRC next week before it would make public.

IIRC panel chief Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said they are in the process of finishing the final phase of the report, which she said will focus on institutional reforms.

De Lima stressed the second phase is equally important since its aim is to prevent the occurrence of such an incident in the future.

She said the IIRC is set to resume next week the second phase of the probe with a “table review” for institutional reforms to prevent a future repetition of the hostage taking.

“The IIRC will be issuing requests to various agencies for the production of certain documents. Likewise, similar requests would be mailed to several resource persons to help us during the review. We will ask for guidance,” De Lima said.

For the meantime, De Lima said she is still waiting for the outcome of the review by the President Aquino’s legal team on the IIRC report.

A sacked police officer seized a busload of Hong Kong tourists in Manila on Aug. 23 in a desperate bid to get his job back and be cleared of extortion charges.

Eight of the tourists and the hostage taker, dismissed policeman Rolando Mendoza, were killed when ill-prepared police commandos launched a rescue attempt riddled with errors in a drama played out live on television.

While the IIRC report concluded that the victims were all killed by the gunman, it also said “incompetence and negligence” on the part of the police contributed to its bloody conclusion.

The IIRC report also faulted three television networks for airing the entire hostage drama live that could have added to the agitation of the gunman.