Senate report on Mamasapano returned to joint committee

The Senate Committee on Rules has decided to return the Mamasapano report to the joint committee that handled the issue due to possibly new pieces of information, Majority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano said Monday.

“Pwedeng ibalik 'yung report kung may claim ng new matter,” said Cayetano, the chairman of the rules panel.

"We agreed na walang impediment, there’s no impediment sa paghi-hearing ulit ng public order committee since sabi ni (Senator) Enrile na may new matter.  It is now up to Sen Enrile and Grace Poe to agree (on when to conduct the hearings)," he told reporters.

Senator Vicente Sotto III, a member of the committee, confirmed Cayetano’s statement.

“Yes, as far as I remember we granted the motion with the resolve of not disregarding the previous hearings contents,” he said in a text message to GMA News Online.

The committee ruled on the motion filed by Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile seeking a reopening of the committee probe on the Mamasapano incident which left over 60 people dead, including 44 police officers of the PNP Special Action Force and at least 17 fighters of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

The Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs, headed by Senator Grace Poe, earlier submitted a report on the incident which states that President Benigno Aquino III is responsible for the Mamasapano operation.

At the height of the Senate hearings on the Jan. 25 Mamasapano clash, Enrile was on hospital arrest at the PNP General Hospital in Camp Crame over plunder and graft charges in connection with the alleged pork barrel scam.

Enrile, 91, returned to the Senate on August 24, nearly a week after the Supreme Court granted his petition to post bail due to poor health. 

In his privilege speech in October, Enrile said the Mamasapano incident must not be taken lightly as he demanded for a full plenary debate. He later said that he wanted a reopening of the committee probe.

“Nothing is to be put under the rug. Everything must come out,” he said.

“If we want to really be open and transparent to the people, then we must do this. Otherwise, there will be suspicion that we are hiding something and I personally think that we are hiding something,” added Enrile. —KG/NB, GMA News