Committee Report
by Max Soliven

This writer met with Secretary of Justice Hernani Perez yesterday morning in a one-on-one, and among the things that came up was the "Committee Report" which was supposed to have been submitted by the committees on Public Order and Illegal Drugs, National Defense and Security, and Acccountability of Public Affairs and Investigations (i.e. the Blue Ribbon Committee).

I told him that I had heard the report contained some serious allegations against opposition Senator Panfilo "Ping" Lacson.

Nani Perez replied that the so-called "Committee Report" still hadn’t been transmitted to him, so he couldn’t say anything about what it might contain one way or another. Then he shrugged, laughing a bit: "Do you think that report will even get sent to the DOJ? I read in the newspapers that the new chairman of the Committee on Public Order and Illegal Drugs is Panfilo Lacson!"

(NOTE: Sen Gregorio Honasan is the Chairman of the Committee on Public Order and Illegal Drugs, Senator Lacson is the Chairman of the Local Government Committee and Labor Committee-webmaster)

Yes, I grinned: And the new chairman of the Blue Ribbon Committee is opposition Senator Edgardo Angara. And the new chairman of the National Defense Committee is opposition Senator Rodolfo Biazon.

Thus are the fortunes of war and politics.

Nonetheless, let’s examine the sort of suspicious-looking so-called "Committee Report" more closely. In its supposedly "finalized" form, it recommended that the persons named in the report (e.g. Lacson and several police officers) be investigated by the Department of Justice for the filing of appropriate charges against them.

I won’t comment on the contents of this report, or whether the allegations of culpability against Lacson et al. are honestly grounded on evidence, either prima facie or beyond reasonable doubt – or dubious in nature. What is immediately apparent, from a perusal of the 13-page document is that: (1) Only seven of the 12 regular and ex-officio members of the Committee on Public Order and Illegal Drugs signed the report, with five members not signing; (2) of the 22 regular and ex-officio members of the Committee on National Defense and Security, only ten signed, with twelve not signing; and (3) of the 20 regular and ex-officio members of the Blue Ribbon Committee, only ten signed the report, with ten not signing.

It’s important to remember that Congressional committees are collegial bodies. It goes without saying that before reports are formalized, there must be a deliberation or a discussion among committee members.If such deliberation or discussion is not possible, or feasible, all members of the committee must at least be furnished with copies of the report — so they concur or dissent, or even decide to take no part. The fact is that all the members of the new majority bloc (i e., the former opposition) in the Senate insist that not one of them was shown copy of the so-called Committee Report hurriedly released by the three investigating committees.

What’s this then?

Senator Pimentel the other day angrily remarked that the release of the report without its contents having been shown to any of the opposition senators was "foul below-the-belt blow." As for Ping Lacson, he scornfully snorted that it is a mere "scrap of paper." His remark is certainly not misplaced.

Why was this strange report so hurriedly released? My sources in the legal community suspect that in the wake of the virtually unanimous Supreme Court decision remanding the Kuratong Baleleng cases to the Quezon City Regional Trial Court, the administration needs a new case "to file" versus Lacson.

I asked Nani Perez about this (incidentally, he had scheduled our coffee "meeting", not me) and he smiled again. He replied that he couldn’t say whether a "new" case could be filed against Ping or not, because he and the DOJ had not received the alleged "Report" or had any opportunity to study or investigate its allegations. What can be said of my old friend Nani is that you can never tell what lurks behind that handsome moustache and innocent smile. That’s what made him such a smart trial lawyer . . . et cetera.

Abangan * * *

Lacson report back to panel

The committee report recommending the prosecution of Sen. Panfilo Lacson for his alleged involvement in illegal drug trafficking activities was tossed back to the committee level yesterday.

Sen. Gregorio Honasan, new chairman of the Senate committee on public order and illegal drugs, said the report had not been approved by the committee.

Honasan questioned the report's lack of the required majority signature of all members of the three committees that conducted the investigation.

The investigation was conducted by the committees on public order and illegal drugs, on national defense and security, and the blue ribbon, previously chaired by administration Senators Robert Barbers, Ramon Magsaysay and Joker Arroyo, respectively.

Honasan initially asked if the report had indeed been filed with the Senate's bills and index division, to which he got a positive reply.

Newly appointed Senate secretary Demaree Raval, however, told Honasan that the report lacked the necessary number of signatures to make it a formal committee report.

Raval also informed Honasan that while the receiving clerk at the bills and index division initially rejected the report and sought its return to the committees, the man who purportedly filed the report insisted that the clerk at least give the report a guide number.

Once a committee report is given a guide number, it is deemed to have been submitted for plenary action.

Senate President pro tempore Blas Ople said since the report failed to comply with rules of the Senate, "it is unacceptable" to the body.

Honasan said he could not review the committee report since it was prepared by his predecessor, but he would try to have it signed by a majority of the members.

It was discovered yesterday that the three committees filed a committee report that was different from the copies distributed to the public.

Sources said that while the report carried the same substance, including the findings and recommendations, the copy given to reporters was "defective in form."

A check on the Senate's bills and index services showed that a 100-page report was filed but that it did not contain a dispositive portion. It did not carry the one-liner on whether the recommendations should be "adopted or approved."

The copy distributed to reporters by Sen. Robert Barbers' chief of staff Jose Castigador, stated that the three panels are "recommending its approval."

Barbers was the overall lead investigator in the probe of alleged money laundering, kidnapping and drug trafficking of Lacson.

The 111-page document was stamped received by the Senate legislative bills and index services only at 2:05 p.m. yesterday.

It said that the three panels are "recommending the adoption of the recommendations contained therein."

The "change" was made after the panels were notified by the LBIS of the "defect" on the 100-page report, sources said.

Such correction, an LBIS insider said, is a manifestation that it was hastily prepared and filed.

The 100-page report was filed at 4:15 in the afternoon of June 3 or several hours after the opposition senators came up with a resolution declaring all committee chairmanship seats vacant.

This means that the decision to file came only after members were informed of the existence of the resolution.

Administration senators used the report as an excuse for not convening the session that same day and to protest the reorganization. They said opposition senators merely wanted to prevent the three panels from submitting the report.

Barbers, when questioned about the timing of the filing of the report, told reporters that their decision came early in the day.

"As early as Monday afternoon, we have already reached a decision to file it since the report was already finished as of last week," Barbers said.

Senate’s Lacson report handiwork of ‘outsiders’
By Angie M. Rosales and Michaela P. del Callar
Friday, 06 07, 2002

The report of the three committees in the Senate recommending indictment on the alleged participation of opposition Sen. Panfilo Lacson in drug-trafficking and kidnapping activities was the handiwork of so-called outsiders of the upper chamber.

The disclosure was yesterday made by sources from the Senate following reports on the apparent defects in form noted by the chamber’s legislative bills and index services (LBIS) at the height of the so-called Senate coup last Monday.

It was learned that the Senate committees on public order and illegal drugs under Sen. Robert Barbers, on national defense and security under Sen. Ramon Magsaysay Jr. and the blue ribbon committee under Sen. Joker Arroyo failed to observe proper procedure in the filing and drafting of the report.

The same sources intimated the report "came" from outside the Senate.

In an apparent haste to have it filed on the day opposition senators moved to reorganize committee chairmanships, some of the needed attachments were not among those submitted to the LBIS.

It was reported that administration senators who stood as members of the three panels pushed the submission of the committee report even if it was yet to be furnished, much more signed by opposition members.

Sources privy to the three committees' work confirmed the information that some supposed "unseen" hands indeed participated in the drafting of the report.

They said those who should have participated in coming up with the findings and recommendations were cast out.

It was not immediately known, however, who are the brains behind the report since it is standard operating procedure to keep confidential those who drafted it.

The allegation that it was hastily and not actually done by Senate insiders was bolstered by a previous leakage, saying the three committees originally intended to clear Lacson from any drug trafficking and kidnapping charges due to lack of evidence.

But it turned out that the report filed twice by the three panels showed it recommends to the Department of Justice and the Office of the Ombudsman to conduct further investigation and possibly initiate filing of criminal charges against Lacson, including Police Superintendents Reynaldo Acop, John Campos and Francisco Villaroman.

The same sources insinuated that members of the Arroyo camp, some of whom served as legal counsels to the complainants in the celebrated Kuratong Baleleng case implicating Lacson, participated in the drafting of the report.

At first, the LBIS refused to accept the report since it lacks the needed signatures of the majority of the panels as required by the rules but it was prevailed upon by the submitting party and left with no choice but to accept it.

Under the rules, the report must be approved by the majority of the regular, including ex-oficio, members of the committees.

This means that the signatures of the minority bloc and administration senators should be reflected in the report. In this case, only those coming from the members of the administration bloc affixed their signatures in the report.

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