Tolentino vows there will be no sacred cows in Blue Ribbon panel probes 

SENATOR Francis N. Tolentino, chair of the Committee on Accountability of Public Officers and Investigations, on Wednesday vowed there will be no sacred cows in the panel’s inquiries, which he assured will be conducted efficiently and fairly.      

“Bearing in mind again that we have a constitutional duty to fulfill and that is to prevent abuses, to pass the proper remedial legislation but with a known standard of proof,” he said during a hearing of the committee also referred to as the Blue Ribbon.   

“We will be here in the succeeding hearings to gather and uncover the truth,” he said.   

The panel is set to conduct a hearing on Tuesday on the alleged illegal resolution for the importation of 300,000 metric tons of sugar, and on Thursday on the laptop contracts flagged by state auditors.  

Mr. Tolentino said the Blue Ribbon will seek to satisfy its “inner conviction” that a certain individual has committed a wrongdoing, which would justify the filing of appropriate charges before the Ombudsman and eventually the anti-graft court Sandiganbayan.   

“We will do whatever is right, but I appeal to the members of this committee to be forthright in joining me to have a Blue Ribbon roadmap,” he said. “The Blue Ribbon roadmap would entail that we will have for purposes of hearings a known duration and a defined direction.” — Alyssa Nicole O. Tan