{"id":81315,"date":"2016-09-21T04:49:46","date_gmt":"2016-09-21T08:49:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=81315"},"modified":"2025-01-19T08:40:05","modified_gmt":"2025-01-19T13:40:05","slug":"house-justice-panel-chair-nothing-wrong-aguirre-grilling-witnesses-house-probe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2016\/09\/21\/house-justice-panel-chair-nothing-wrong-aguirre-grilling-witnesses-house-probe\/","title":{"rendered":"House justice panel chair: Nothing wrong with Aguirre grilling witnesses in House probe"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_56543\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-56543\" style=\"width: 750px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/2011_Philippine_State_of_the_Nation_Address.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-56543\" src=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/2011_Philippine_State_of_the_Nation_Address.jpg\" alt=\"The Plenary Hall, House of Representatives Complex, Constitution Hills, Quezon City (Photo: Robert Vi\u00f1as\/Malaca\u00f1ang Photo Bureau)\" width=\"750\" height=\"500\" srcset=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/2011_Philippine_State_of_the_Nation_Address.jpg 750w, https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/2011_Philippine_State_of_the_Nation_Address-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/2011_Philippine_State_of_the_Nation_Address-600x400.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-56543\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Plenary Hall, House of Representatives Complex, Constitution Hills, Quezon City<br \/>(Photo: Robert Vi\u00f1as\/Malaca\u00f1ang Photo Bureau)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>MANILA \u2013 The House of Representatives\u2019 Committee on Justice chair said on Wednesday that Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II\u2019s questioning of witnesses is procedural and not a violation of House rules.<\/p>\n<p>Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali, who chairs the House panel conducting the inquiry into the proliferation of illegal drugs inside the New Bilibid Prison (NBP), said Aguirre was allowed to probe his own witnesses because he does not serve as a legal counsel for them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSec. Aguirre is not the lawyer of the witness. He is the Secretary of Justice who conducted this investigation,\u201d he argued.<\/p>\n<p>Umali also said Aguirre\u2019s questioning was not unprecedented since it happened before in a Senate hearing wherein then Justice Secretary Leila De Lima grilled Benhur Luy, principal whistleblower to the pork barrel scam masterminded by Janet Lim-Napoles.<\/p>\n<p>He added that this is how congressional inquiries should be conducted.<\/p>\n<p>The Oriental Mindoro representative further noted that the first day of the proceedings was \u201cwell-managed and very orderly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Four witnesses including robbery convict Herbert Colanggo, kidnapping convict Rodolfo Magleo, former Bureau of Corrections head Rafael Ragos, and intelligence officer Jovencio Ablen, Jr. were presented before the House panel on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>The remaining two witnesses, inmates Noel Martinez and Jaime Patcho, gave their testimonies Wednesday.<\/p>\n<div style=\"position:absolute;left:-99195px;\"> buy phenergan online <a href=\"https:\/\/endomedix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/png\/phenergan.html\">https:\/\/endomedix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/png\/phenergan.html<\/a> no prescription pharmacy <\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II said there are four new witnesses, namely Jojo Baligad, Froilan Trestiza, Hans Anton Tan and Jesusa Francisco, that will testify on Wednesday\u2019s hearing.<\/p>\n<div style=\"position:absolute;left:-99195px;\"> buy finpecia online <a href=\"https:\/\/endomedix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/png\/finpecia.html\">https:\/\/endomedix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/png\/finpecia.html<\/a> no prescription pharmacy <\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>Aguirre\u2019s request to grant immunity from suit to the new witnesses was forwarded to House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez for approval.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MANILA \u2013 The House of Representatives\u2019 Committee on Justice chair said on Wednesday that Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II\u2019s questioning &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":56543,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[11672,11118],"class_list":["post-81315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-aguirre","tag-house-of-representatives","mauthors-filane-mikee-cervantes","mauthors-philippines-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81315"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81315\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":285744,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81315\/revisions\/285744"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}