MANILA, Philippines - Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo denied accusations President Benigno Aquino III took responsibility for the Manila hostage crisis to save his people from accountability over the mismanaged incident.

Robredo faced the House appropriations committee on Monday to defend his agency’s budget proposal for 2011. But the committee hearing quickly turned into an investigation on the August 23 incident.

The hearing was the first opportunity for lawmakers from the minority bloc, who have called for Robredo’s ouster, to face the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) chief after the House Committee on Public Order decided to wait for the justice department’s investigation to finish first before deciding on resolutions for the House of Representatives to investigate the incident.

Zambales Rep. Mitos Magsaysay admonished Robredo and DILG Undersceretary for Peace and Order Rico Puno for President Aquino’s having to take responsibility over the mismanaged incident.

“It saddens me that the president has to take over. Don’t you think that’s a reflection that he doesn't have full trust and confidence in your organization? You can't make the excuse that you're just 60 days into the office. Isn’t it your job to shield the president from these kinds of brickbats? What's the point of appointing them if they can't even protect the president?” she said.

Robredo, for his part, said, “Hindi naman po namin inaabswelto ang mga sarili namin. Wala naman po nagpapaako sa kaniya. Di akma na sinasabi na pinaako sa kaniya. Sinasabi nga namin, hindi naman namin inaabswelto sarili namin. Noong pinili kami ng pangulo, may tiwala siya sa aming kakayahan.”

Minority Leader Edcel Lagman repeatedly asked Robredo about the power structure in the DILG.

Robredo, however, maintained that he really had no involvement in the botched crisis management, and that’s why he even sits as IIRC vice chair.

“We'll get to know after the results of the probe. We're conducting hearings at DOJ, and we imposed a deadline on ourselves. We're looking at Sept. 15. We can get details as to what lapses, if there were, who were responsible. Hopefully, we will be able to resolve it. The initial directive is an incident review committee, but when Secretary Leila [de Lima] and I discussed this, it was agreed it will investigate, will pinpoint culpability. In so far as my authority and participation in the incident, when the committee was formed, effectively, the message was I can be part of group that will probe in as much as I’m not part of group responsible for managing the incident,” he said.

Lagman, however, said this was a statement should have been said earlier. There are doubts, according to Lagman, on whether Aquino's statement was an afterthought or intended to shield certain responsible ranking officials.

Robredo said his appointment was less about powers than output. The President, he said, really wanted him to focus on local government units and informal settlers.

Robredo also said the DILG’s supervision over the Philippine National Police (PNP) is due to the fact that he is ex-officio chairman of the National Police Commission, which is the policy-making body over the PNP. It [PNP] is not directly under the DILG.

But, Robredo emphasized, “I'm not absolving myself from this problem. We're just trying to explain.”

Robredo also said he had to ask permission from the President to proceed to the crisis site as the latter did not dispatch him. They met at the Emerald Garden restaurant a few blocks away from the hostage-taking incident.

He, however, told the committee that he did talk to Puno earlier to manage the media coverage.