Not Done Yet, Aldo Salazar Says Committee’s Time Must Be Productive

Following last Wednesday’s epic failure to remove the U.D.P. operatives from the gallery, Chairman Salazar went on record with a personal view that the inquiry should come to an end sooner than later.  This was echoed by the Deputy Prime Minister Patrick Faber.  That position has been met with reluctance from other members of the panel and Wednesday’s shenanigans are seen as part of an overall strategy to discontinue the proceedings. Today, we asked the presiding senator if the resumption of the hearing will fall under the existing status quo or whether it will be abbreviated.

Aldo Salazar

Aldo Salazar, Chairman, Senate Special Select Committee

“We were on track to proceed.  My intention was to proceed up until yesterday when I was notified of a request for postponement for a week.”

Isani Cayetano

“In some corners there has been a position taken, that while you have since gone on record to say that maybe it’s about time to wrap up the overall hearing.  There are some who would argue that there still needs to be a thorough question and session with those who may have appeared in the past, before the Senate Select Committee and that it wouldn’t be complete until this process is exhausted thoroughly.  Would you be able to speak on that, continuing under the present status quo or changing things, in terms of shortening the inquiry?”

Aldo Salazar

“That’s an expression of my opinion, that I feel that we need to, we are reaching the end of the life of this inquiry because we’ve really gone into much detail into the meat of the inquiry.  But when I said that I didn’t mean that we should stop today or tomorrow.  I meant that… I said three witnesses, it could be four or five more witnesses to complete what I feel would be an exhaustive exercise which I view as our responsibility is to look at the report of the auditor general, dissect it, question those persons mentioned in there and really to make recommendations as to what transpired.  Where were the weaknesses that led us to where we are now and how we can improve upon those weaknesses.  I don’t feel that going more than say, other people who are pertinent, say Senator Hulse who was minister at the time, Mr. Carlos Perdomo, who we have online to come.  But I don’t feel that going beyond that is going to be very productive for us as a committee.”