Senator Franklin Drilon yesterday insisted that there was excessive use of force in the police siege on the Iloilo Capitol on Jan. 17 and that the police exoneration of those involved was "very obviously a whitewash."

Drilon, who spoke to the DAILY STAR after a Senate hearing on the Iloilo siege, said Chief Supt. Wilfredo Dulay, Region 6 police director, admitted himself that there was excessive use of force when the police entered the Iloilo Capitol to serve a dismissal order on Gov. Niel Tupas.

But in the same hearing Dulay also said he had recommended that the cops involved in the siege should be commended, Drilon said, adding that he did not know how the regional director could reconcile the two statements. Drilon, a political ally of Tupas, said Dulay said he had received orders from above but did not identify the person he was referring too.

Department of Interior and Local Government and Department of Justice officials invited to the hearing did not attend, Drilon said.

However, he said the Senate probe had elicited enough testimony from yesterday's hearing for them to come up with their recommendations.

Drilon said a COMELEC official testified that there were no armed men inside the Iloilo Capitol as claimed by the police and it was also disclosed at the hearing that the M-16 rifle recovered by the police, was from outside the building.

A police fact-finding team Wednesday cleared troopers of the 6th Regional Mobile Group stationed in Negros Occidental, from any "infractions" during the siege.

Police Director Edgardo Doromal, head of the fact-finding team tasked to investigate the Iloilo Capitol assault, said he will even recommend to PNP chief Oscar Calderon that the Western Visayas policemen be commended for doing their job.

Doromal also justified the assault and breaking of the glass doors of the Iloilo Provincial Capitol, saying it was not "overkill" as claimed by others.

"The Philippine National Police fielded just enough policemen - 200 - to maintain peace and order, as an estimated 1,000 supporters of Governor Niel Tupas, had barricaded the Capitol and with the support of heavily armed men holed up inside the building," Doromal, director of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, said.*CPG

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