Palace: PNP Board of Inquiry did not mention the need to get the PNoy’s statement

On March 9, 2015, President Benigno S. Aquino III hosted a prayer gathering with Christian groups in Malacañan Palace. (Malacañang Photo Bureau)

MANILA — Malacañang on Tuesday said the Philippine National Police’s Board of Inquiry (PNP-BOI) chief did not mention the need to get President Benigno S. Aquino’s statement regarding the Mamasapano incident.

Communication Secretary Herminio Coloma, Jr. noted that according to PNP Spokesman Chief Supt. Generoso Cerbo, Jr., PNP-BOI head Director Benjamin Magalong only spoke about the board’s request for postponement of the submission of their report, during Monday’s press conference and never mentioned the need to get President Aquino’s statement on the January 25 mission that resulted in the death of 44 members of the police’s Special Action Force.

“Ayon kay PNP Spokesperson Chief Superintendent Generoso Cerbo, Jr., who was present during the press conference, wala po siyang (Magalong) sinabi na kailangan pa talagang kausapin ng BOI si Pangulong Aquino,” Secretary Coloma told reporters during a press briefing.

(According to NP Spokesperson Chief Superintendent Generoso Cerbo, Jr., who was present during the press conference, Magalong didn’t say that the BOI really needed to speak with President Aquino.)

Coloma also said that he has no specific knowledge if there was a letter or a verbal request from the PNP-BOI to get President Aquino’s statement.

President Aquino, he said, has already mentioned everything he knew about the Mamasapano incident in previous speeches, the latest of which was delivered before members of the Coalition of Christian Churches during a prayer gathering at the Malacañang grounds on Monday.

The PNP-BOI report was supposed to be submitted last month but the schedule has been reset twice.