CONGRESS will conduct a joint hearing of its three committees today to look into the security lapses in the management of the “Close-Up Forever Summer’’ concert that resulted in the deaths of five people due to possible intake of prohibited drugs at an open parking area near a Pasay City mall.
Quezon City Rep. Winston Castelo, chairman of the House committee on Metro Manila development, vowed to dig deeper into the incident amid security lapses by organizers.
“We have to look into the security measures implemented to determine possible security lapses,” he said.
The investigation will be pursued by Castelo’s panel and the committees on dangerous drugs and on youth and sports development.
“No one will be exempted. The government will go after them. The full force of the law will be implemented to give justice to the victims for their negligence,” Castelo said.
He added they would get down into the bottom as to why illegal drugs found their way into the concert.
“Every organization involved in the tragic event will be given ample time to explain their specific roles, particularly the agency tasked to secure every point of entry of the event ground,” he cited.
The management of Close-Up tapped the Activation Advertising Inc. to handle the safety of the concert-goers and security of the summer concert.
According to Castelo, representatives from the National Bureau of Investigation, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, SM-MoA, Unilever Philippines Inc., Pasay police and the event organizer, Close-up, have also been summoned to attend today’s inquiry.
On May 21, at least five of the concert-goers including an American, collapsed and died.
NBI operatives arrested one of the suspects, Joshua Habalo, alias “Josh,” during a party at the House of Manila club inside Remington Hotel in Pasay City.
He was caught in possession of pink ecstasy tablets, packets of cocaine, and three green-colored tablets believed to be the green amore, a lethal mix of shabu and ecstasy.