Palace on review: No charges to be filed for publicity

MANILA, Philippines – Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said the Palace legal team did not sacrifice accuracy for speed as far as the review of the report on the Aug. 23 hostage-taking incident was concerned.

Valte also emphasized that no charges would be filed just for the sake of publicity.

Speaking over radio station dzRB, the Palace spokesperson said that it would be best to wait for the final report to be released rather than speculate and rely on information being leaked to the media.

“What the President wants is when we file cases before the courts, they will not be dismissed. The President does not want to file cases just for publicity. There should really be basis and the cases must prosper,” Valte said.

She said any charges that would be filed against anyone would have to be correct and that the legal study should not be rushed as this would carry the risk of implicating people who should not be prosecuted.

Valte added that the President had ordered an investigation into the reported leak of a draft of the review and that he would be the one to ultimately decide on what to do with the review.

President Aquino said yesterday that the final recommendations as to who would be charged based on the review of the incident investigation and review committee’s (IIRC) report on the Aug. 23 hostage crisis were ready and their release would be made soon.

He said he would have to see the final version and this would be made public “most probably Monday (tomorrow).”

Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Herminio Coloma said the supposed leaks were not significant because no one could claim that what they obtained were the official and final documents.

Aurea Calica, Philippine Star