Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim and the Office of the Ombudsman may have already vented their dismay at the findings of the multi-sectoral body that probed the August 23 hostage fiasco, but officials of the Manila Police District stood pat on keeping their mouths shut.
Chief Superintendent Roberto Rongavilla, officer-in-charge of the Manila Police District in lieu of beleaguered Chief Superintendent Rodolfo Magtibay who is on leave, refused to give his reaction to the 83-page report by the Incident Investigation and Review Committee (IIRC), citing the "gag order" issued by the probe body last month.
The order barred government agencies from issuing premature disclosures on the inquiry so long as it was on-going, to prevent confusion and systematize the release of information to the public.
"Hindi pa rin ako puwedeng mag-salita dahil ino-observe pa rin namin ang gag order," Rongavilla said at the sidelines of Mayor Lim's press conference in Manila on Tuesday.
At the press conference, Lim and Vice Mayor Francisco “Isko" Moreno said they were prepared to face charges that might be pressed against them, but both criticized the findings of the five-member probe body.
Asked why he did not want to comment when Lim and Moreno were already expressing to the media their reactions to the IIRC report, Rongavilla said: "Sila iyon. Kami sa kapulisan at sa MPD ay hindi pa rin magsasalita." (That's them. But we in the police force and the MPD will not talk about it.)
Apart from MPD head Magtibay, other members of the Manila police found liable in the hostage crisis was Superintendent Orlando Yebra Jr., who acted as chief negotiator, and MPD’s Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) unit head Chief Inspector Santiago Pascual.
Like Rongavilla, Yebra — one of 12 people found culpable by the IIRC — refused to give his reaction to the findings, according to a GMA News report on 24 Oras.
Last week, GMANews.TV also tried securing documents from the MPD regarding the firearms that had been issued to hostage-taker and dismissed Senior Inspector Rolando Mendoza, but police officials refused to give any, saying the gag order also covered the release of documents related to the August 23 hostage-taking incident. (See: The PNP's costly failure to retrieve Mendoza's M-16)
But Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo, a member of the IIRC, told GMANews.TV on Tuesday that government officials are not actually prevented from speaking about the hostage fiasco.
"[There was] no gag order really," Robredo said in a text message. It was not the first time that Robredo had refused to label the move as a "gag order," saying the IIRC only wanted a point person — in this case Justice Secretary Leila de Lima — to speak to the public about the investigation.—JV
