SENATE Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III said Monday they will investigate Senator Leila de Lima for allegedly preventing her former aide and boyfriend Ronnie Dayan from attending the House probe on illegal drugs.
But Sotto rejected probing De Lima for immorality and protection of drug dealers.
Sotto said the Senate ethics committee decided to investigate De Lima for stopping Dayan from participating in the House inquiry on the proliferation of illegal drugs inside the New Bilibid Prison when she was Justice secretary.
Sotto, also chairman of the ethics committee, said the investigation would be based on the consolidated supplemental complaint of lawyer Abelardo De Jesus, House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, House Majority Leader Rodolfo Fariñas and Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali, chairman of the House Committee on Justice that investigated the illicit drug operations in Bilibid.
Umali’s committee had summoned Dayan to its hearing in the wake of allegations that he received money from convicted drug lords in Bilibid to bankroll De Lima’s senatorial bid.
Dayan, who went into hiding, never showed up in the congressional hearings, and reportedly at the prodding of De Lima sent through text messages.
De Lima is accused of violating Article 150 of the Revised Penal Code, which penalizes any person “who shall restrain another from attending as a witness, or who shall induce disobedience to a summon or refusal to be sworn by any such body or official.”
The House leaders also accuse De Lima of being unparliamentary for her negative comments on the House hearings.
While admitting sending text messages to Dayan through the cellphone of his daughter Hannah, De Lima insists she merely prevented a “political persecution” against her.
The senators adopted Sotto’s opinion that the ethics committee had jurisdiction over the complaints since the act being alleged against her was committed when she was already a senator.
Sotto said the Senate panel had given De Lima 15 days to answer the Senate resolution on the complaints that were found sufficient in form and substance.
After that, he said, a public hearing would be called where De Lima and the complainants would be asked to explain their sides.
“We would like the public to see what’s going on,” Sotto said.
“Of course there are some who ask why it will not be a closed-door hearing. It’s because if we have a decision that the public would understand, we might be blamed.”
Sotto also said he and the others did not want to be accused of pinning down De Lima or rescuing a colleague.
Regarding the two other complaints, Sotto said those were dismissed due to lack of jurisdiction.
“We didn’t talk about the form and substance anymore because the [lack of] jurisdiction issue was resolved already,” Sotto said.
He said they dismissed the two complaints because the acts involved happened before De Lima became a senator.
De Lima’s ally, Senate President Pro Tempore Franklin Drilon, supported the decision. He also agreed to proceed with the first two other complaints as they were sufficient in form and substance.
The rejected complaints were also filed by De Jesus and migrant worker Runillo Pulmano who based his accusations on the President’s statements.