Release Mayuga report ASAP, Pimentel urges Arroyo

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr on Sunday urged President Arroyo to release the Armed Forces Inspector General’s report on the alleged involvement of senior military officers in electoral fraud in Mindanao. Pimentel said the President should release the Mayuga report to stop restiveness in the military. The opposition senator’s pronouncement comes in the wake of Mrs. Arroyo’s first dialogue with representatives of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) scheduled this week. “Stop pretending. With or without a dialogue, Mrs. Arroyo knows what is causing all these troubles in the military establishment. But if she will keep evading the issue, then that dialogue will be only for show and nothing tangible will come out of it,” he said. The AFP Inspector General’s office was tasked to look into the senior military officials reportedly mentioned in the “Hello, Garci!” wiretap recordings. It was then headed by Rear Admiral Mateo Mayuga, currently the Navy Flag-Officer-in-Command. Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz Jr recently confirmed that he is reviewing the Mayuga report. Pimentel said if the President is determined to quell the tension and disenchantment in the AFP, the first thing she must do is order the release of the Mayuga report. He assailed the AFP leadership for “keeping the Mayuga report under wraps obviously because the President has prevented them from declassifying it.” “Why should the report be kept under wraps when it is a public document and the Filipino people, including the 120,000 members of the AFP, are entitled to know its contents?” Pimentel asked. The refusal to release the report, Pimentel alleged, has contributed to the restiveness in the military.-GMANews.TV