SPEAKER Pantaleon Alvarez on Wednesday said he sees nothing wrong if the alleged sex video of Senator Leila de Lima would be played during a hearing at the House committee on justice, which is investigating the proliferation of illegal drugs in the New Bilibid Prison when De Lima was still Justice secretary.
“I do not see there’s anything wrong with the playing of the said video so that the public would know what ‘s the real truth,” Alvarez said.
Alvarez, principal author of the resolution calling for an investigation, said he would allow the playing of the video if there was a need to establish a sexual relationship between De Lima and her former driver and bodyguard Ronnie Dayan, which could have led to corruption.
But Alvarez said he had no interest in watching the video himself.
He added that it was De Lima’s loss if she insisted on staying away from the House hearings.
“Should Senator De Lima refuse to appear… [so be it]. Let the public judge if the alleged sex video is authentic,” Alvarez said.
But opposition lawmakers opposed the playing of the video.
“If it’s pleasing to the eye, then play it. But if it is not, there is no need,” said Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez.
Buhay party-list Rep. Lito Atienza said playing the video would be a “horror story” and said the House probe should stop and appropriate chages be filed against De Lima.
“We have heard enough [during congressional hearings]… All we can do now is to amend the law,” Atienza said. “Charges should be filed at the DoJ.. No more [discussions] about wigs and sexual intercourse.”
But Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali, chairman of the House committee on justice, said his panel would conduct three more hearings, and compel the presence of the NBP drug lord Jaybee Sebastian during one of the sessions.
Umali said they needed three more hearings despite the appeal from some congressmen to wrap up the investigation.
During the two days of hearings last week, nine witnesses were presented.
“In a day, we realized we can only cover about three or four [witnesses]. More than that, the session is too long,” he said.
Under House rules, committee hearings are suspended to give way to the two-week plenary deliberations on the national budget, but Umali said they were willing to bend this rule to ferret out the truth on the drug trade inside the NBP.