At about 7:30 am today, a riot ensued at the New Bilibid Prison (NBP).
It was reported that the riot started when a certain Peter Co attacked Clarence
Dungail after the latter reprimanded the former. The riot resulted to the death
of Tony Co, a high-profile inmate, and the injury of others, including Jaybee
Sebastian who is considered to be a key witness to the NBP drug trade.
Senator Trillanes is moving for the Senate to conduct an investigation
on the said riot.
Some questions from a layman… Why would the Senate investigate such a
riot? What law to be passed would be aided by the Senate Investigation of the
matter? Wouldn’t it be better for the Philippine National Police (PNP) or the
National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to conduct the Investigation as they are
the agencies tasked with investigation work?
Some would say that this riot is connected to the Drug Probe being
conducted in the New Bilibid Prison. Some even attribute the riot to Senator
Leila Delima stating that she would have much to gain if Jaybee Sebastian was
to die, which such allegation was denied by the Senator.
My reaction? Well, I believe that the investigation should be left t
the proper authorities. The PNP or the NBI should be the agencies who would
conduct the investigation and not the Senate, as Senator Antonio Trillanes
would want. The Senators should, instead, concentrate on the task that they
were voted into office for, the passing of laws. If they deem it necessary to
pass a law that would prevent the same incident from happening, then they
should do just that, pass a law. If they say that there is a need to inquire
into the riot in order to create a law, then they should make it clear what law
and for what purpose the law should be and how the inquiry or investigation
would help in the creation of such a law.
However, if the request for such an investigation by the Senate is only
to investigate the incident without being connected to the main function of the
Senate which is Legislative in nature, then I urge the Senate to keep its hands
off of the incident and leave the investigation to the proper agencies.
If the Senators wish to act more like investigators, then so should the
investigators act as legislators.
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