SENATOR Panfilo Lacson is planning to resume the Senate hearing on the death of Albuera, Leyte mayor Ronaldo Espinosa Sr. this week.
Lacson, who chairs the Senate committee on public order and dangerous drugs, said the hearing might take place on December 15.
The Senate will go on recess on December 17.
“I intend to hold another hearing if only to get the NBI (National Bureau of Investigation) report,” Lacson said noting that the NBI probe report was what he needed to finally close the probe.
Lacson, who earlier said that the Espinosa slay was a premeditated case, said that until the murder cases are addressed, “there will always be suspicion or a perception that the killings are state-sponsored.”
He said that in the next hearing, he intends to ask the Philippine National Police (PNP) to provide the statistics of deaths under investigation (DUI) and their solutions to address them.
Lacson said he wants to have concrete details of the report submitted to the PNP and to compare the same with the recent report of the NBI.
“They say they have identified suspects, there are some at large, some with cases in court. But we are only are told of the numbers, but we don’t see the details,” Lacson said.
Lacson also pointed out that there is a big possibility that not all the killings are related to the campaign of the government against illegal drugs.
Lacson, a former PNP chief, said the possibility of some unscrupulous people and syndicate using the campaign of the government against illegal drugs to eradicate their enemies is also possible.
“These could be ordinary murder cases not related to the anti-drug campaign of the government. So I want to see more details when it comes to the solution of murder cases, killings,” he added.
Lacson also urged PNP chief Director General Roland Dela Rosa to improve their "Oplan Tokhang" — which involves cops going house to house to ask drug users and pushers to surrender — or stop it altogether.
Senator Richard Gordon had previously described the PNP's operation plan as a violation of constitutional rights.
In his report, Gordon stated that there is no proof on the existence of the so-called vigilante group Davao Death Squad and President Rodrigo Duterte's alleged hand in the killings of suspected drug lords and other criminals when he was then the Davao city mayor.
Eleven senators have signed the committee report including Gordon, Lacson, Gregorio Honasan II, Loren Legarda, Juan Miguel Zubiri, Nancy Binay, Emmanuel Pacquiao, and Vicente Sotto III.
Five senators who did not sign the committee report were Leila de Lima, Antonio Trillanes IV, Ralph Recto, Grace Poe — who was on an official business trip — and Joseph Victor Ejercito, who is currently serving his 90-day suspension order from the Supreme Court.
Trillanes slammed Gordon calling his committee report as a mere garbage and tagged the senator as counsel for President Duterte.
Trillanes said the report failed to include in its findings the testimony of two witnesses of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) who clearly pointed to policemen as involved in extra-judicial killings.
He said the committee also did not want to find out more witnesses who could testify on summary executions, including nine more witnesses from CHR who were ready to testify when Gordon decided to end the investigation.
Trillanes said the President, despite thousands of extrajudicial killings, did not even call for a stop to the killings.
“Precisely it is the policy to kill… this is state-sponsored,” Trillanes said in his interpellation.
He asked why the committee failed to consider the issues raised at the start of the hearing, the 3,000 deaths which has risen to 6,000 now.
“What is this? A coincidence? Is there a pestilence that passed the country?” asked Trillanes.
“This is the biggest number of cases of people fighting back the police in the last six months...you have to be monumentally stupid to fight back policemen when you know that they are killing those fighting back,” he said.
Gordon, who went into another verbal tussle with Trillanes on the Senate floor Tuesday, called the senator a “mere spoiled brat.”
“If they do not like the report, we will respect your opinion but please do not call your fellow committee members garbage. The report is a product of hard work. It was all 125 pages of hard work. We did our job. It hurts me and I am sure it hurts other members of the committee that we did our work and get that kind of comment,” Gordon said.
Gordon also reminded Trillanes to know his limitations and not to act like a child who whimpers at a corner if things didn’t match his expectations. (Sunnex)
“We should be senators true to form,” Gordon said. (Sunnex)