PNP: De Lima working in jail up to court

The Philippine National Police (PNP) said only the courts could allow Sen. Leila de Lima to carry out her legislative duties in detention as requested by Senate President Vicente Sotto III, a stand which De Lima said was ill-advised.

In a handwritten statement posted on Facebook by her staff, De Lima said PNP Chief Oscar Albayalde was “given the wrong legal advice” when Albayalde rejected Sotto’s request for De Lima, who chairs the Senate Committee on Social Justice, Welfare and Rural Development, to hold hearings in the PNP Custodial Center where she has been detained since last year on drug charges.

Sotto cited the case of Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, who had been allowed to hold committee hearings while detained on a coup d’ etat case against the administration of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Jurisdiction

But Albayalde said only the court, having jurisdiction over De Lima’s case, could decide on Sotto’s request.

Albayalde said similar requests by Trillanes and former congressman Romeo Jalosjos, who had been detained for rape, had been rejected by the Supreme Court.

Trillanes and Jalosjos, however, had eventually been allowed to carry out their legislative duties in detention.

But De Lima, in her handwritten statement, said the Supreme Court’s ruling on Trillanes and Jalosjos could not have contemplated her case—“a person under pretrial who has been presumed innocent.”

De Lima expressed hope that Sotto and Albayalde could “come to an acceptable resolution on this matter” and “for a satisfactory outcome that will be good for the institution and integrity of the Senate.”

In a press conference at Camp Crame on Friday, PNP spokesperson Senior Supt. Benigno Durana maintained the PNP position.

“Lawyers will always have different interpretations,” Durana said. —With reports from Julia Ornedo and Andrea Alcaraz

View comments

TAGS: Leila de Lima, PNP‎, Tito Sotto