At the end of the day.

After a long wait, the cat is now out of the bag. President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III has finally released to the public his decision and specific courses of action on government and police officials taken to task for the bungled handling of the Aug. 23 Luneta hostage-taking incident. Consistent with his previous public pronouncements, the President showed his tempered brand of justice in dealing with public officials under fire.

Demonstrating his kind of leadership, the President called for a full-blown press conference on Monday at Malacañang Palace to announce what he was going to do with the report of the incident investigation and review committee (IIRC). He created this ad hoc fact-finding body to look into what went wrong during the hostage crisis and who should be held responsible for them.

The Chief Executive patiently answered questions related to the IIRC report. For that alone, I would credit the President in giving it due importance in personally responding to all questions about the Palace review of the IIRC report instead of just leaving this task to his battery of spokespeople.

The five-man panel of IIRC, headed by Justice Secretary Leila De Lima, submitted to the President their findings and general recommendations on the hostage crisis based on the series of public hearings they conducted. He, in turn, asked Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa and presidential chief legal counsel Eduardo de Mesa to review the 83-page IIRC report.

They looked into the hostage drama involving dismissed police officer Rolando Mendoza who took over a tourist bus, commandeered it to go the Quirino grandstand in Luneta, and killed eight Hong Kong tourists following a poorly executed police rescue operations.

The botched Luneta hostage drama was a very sore point in the President’s first 100 days in office. It resulted to Hong Kong imposing a travel ban in going to the Philippines. The Philippine government is currently trying to mend relations with Hong Kong through the Beijing government.

Hence, a number of government and police officials got into trouble for Mendoza’s bloody caper.

As recommended by the Palace review team, the President approved the filing of administrative charges but not criminal complaint against these officials as submitted by the IIRC. De Mesa rightly pointed out this does not prevent the families of the slain hostage victims to file criminal charges against the same officials if they believe they have strong cases against them.

Administrative proceedings were recommended against Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim, Deputy Ombudsman Emilio Gonzalez III and four police officers — former MPD Chief Superintendent Rodolfo Magtibay for gross incompetence and serious neglect of duty; NCRPO chief Leocadio Santiago Jr. for grave neglect of duty; Superintendent Orlando Yebra who served as chief negotiator for neglect of duty; and Chief Inspector Santiago Pascual III for gross incompetence. The cases of the four police officers have been referred to the National Police Commission.

The Palace review cleared from any liability the President’s close friend, Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Undersecretary Rico Puno and retired Philippine National Police (PNP) Director-General Jesus Verzosa. Also cleared from any wrongdoing is Manila Vice Mayor Isko Moreno. All three officials were recommended for administrative sanctions in the IIRC report.

But if Puno was cleared of any wrongdoing as in-charge of the national crisis committee, why would Mayor Lim be held to account for “simple neglect” and “misconduct” as the chair of the local crisis committee? In the Local Government Code of 1991 where Lim was being held liable under its particular provisions, the same law does not even grant the Mayor the control and supervision of the police. 

In the same breath, the President justified the clearing of the former PNP chief. “There also has to be specific laws that he violated, and the manual does not contain a provision when a local crisis management committee is convened into a national one,” the President pointed out.

TV-5 anchor and RMN reporter Erwin Tulfo and RMN reporter/anchor Mike Rogas have likewise been cleared by the Palace review contrary to the IIRC recommendations. The two media persons, however, received presidential rebuke for acting irresponsibly “bordering on criminal” when they interfered with police work during the hostage crisis.

The President upheld the common recommendation by the IIRC and Palace review team to refer instead to the House of Representatives “for appropriate action” the case against Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez, being an impeachable official under our country’s Constitution. 

The hostage taker was reportedly enraged by Gutierrez’s not being clear about acting on his demand for reinstatement in the police force. But why fault the Ombudsman for something that is not negotiable even for the sake of misleading a hostage-taker?

Defending the Palace review of the IIRC report, the President cited he would approve filing of criminal charges only in cases where court conviction are certain. On this score, President Aquino instructed Justice Secretary De Lima to initiate criminal and administrative proceedings against SPO2 Gregorio Mendoza, brother of the slain hostage taker.

In her press conference at her office yesterday, De Lima admitted resignation has crossed her mind a day after the President downgraded the IIRC recommendations on criminal charges. But later in the day, the Justice Secretary issued a formal press statement to clarify she was not going to resign from the Cabinet just because of this.  

While expressing full support to the President’s final take on the IIRC report, she may find herself in conflict with her fiscals at the DOJ after the Commander-in-Chief officially granted amnesty to the Magdalo mutineers. Fiscals handling the rebellion cases against the Magdalo mutineers were vocal in their objections to the presidential decision coming at a time that the courts are set to hand down its ruling later this month.

At the end of the day, to paraphrase the favorite line of P-Noy, it is him — as the Chief Executive — who has to answer to his “boss”—the Filipino people — on every decision that his administration takes, right or wrong.