MANILA (UPDATE) — Sen. Francis Tolentino, the new Senate Blue Ribbon committee chairman, on Wednesday laid out the direction the panel would take under his helm.

Organizing the committee for its first hearing, Tolentino immediately appealed to his colleagues for them to have a “blue ribbon roadmap” that would state the “purposes of hearing, a known duration of hearings, and a defined direction.”

“We will not evolve into a political circus. We will not go into unending hearings. We will respect the rights of the witnesses. We will respect the rights of the resource persons... We will not be here to witch hunt, to have a fishing expedition. We will be here in the succeeding hearings to gather and uncover the truth. Kahit sino po ang masaktan, we will do what is right,” he said.

Invited resource persons will be treated with dignity and fairness, he said.

Despite having a more defined committee direction under a new chairman, the Blue Ribbon panel still maintained its old rules, except the “detention order” which if released, will place the concerned individual under the custody of the Office of the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms (OSAA).

A “commitment order,” meantime, would mean transferring the concerned subject to either the Pasay City Jail or another facility.

All the 16 committee members have signed the revised rules in agreement.

There are 5 resolutions and 1 privilege speech requesting investigations now awaiting the panel’s action.

• Senate panel to probe sugar importation mess, 'overpriced' DepEd laptops

Before the adjournment of the Blue Ribbon's first hearing, Tolentino formally elected former Deputy Ombudsman Melchor Carandang as the panel’s Senior Legal Consultant.

Former Ombudsman for Luzon Gerard Mosquera was also elected as General Counsel of the committee.

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