House starts inquiry into Mamasapano clash today

MANILA, Philippines - The House committee on public order and safety will push through with its inquiry today into the Special Action Force (SAF) operation that resulted in the death of 44 policemen in Mamasapano, Maguindanao last Jan. 25 even as the Senate has started its own probe into the incident.

Negros Occidental Rep. Jeffrey Ferrer, chairman of the panel, said there were moves to hold a joint inquiry with the Senate but the senators have already started their probe while the House leadership was still working on the arrangement.

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. earlier suggested that the House and Senate conduct a joint inquiry to save time and resources, as the resource persons to be invited were the same people who have testified in the Senate.

“The people are waiting for this and this is well within our mandate so we’ll proceed with our own procedures and our own line of questioning,” Ferrer said.

He said there has been no word yet whether the invited resource persons, including Armed Forces chief Gen. Gregorio Catapang and Philippine National Police officer-in-charge Deputy Director General Leonardo Espina, have declined the invitations.

He said the panel would not rush its inquiry since the House wants an accurate investigation that will find out what really happened and who’s accountable.

Ferrer said he does not see any problem in the event that its committee report will differ from that of the Senate.

He said the approach of the House would be different from that of the Senate.

The House panel will have three former ranking PNP officials and three former military officials as members who will ask questions that may not be thought of by civilians.

The former police and military officials in the panel are Reps. Romeo Acop of Antipolo, Leopoldo Bataoil of Pangasinan, Samuel Pagdilao of the ACT-CIS party-list group, Rodolfo Biazon of Muntinlupa, Ashley Acedillo and Gary Alejano of the Magdalo party-list group.