No fireworks in Senate as Lacson has only ‘sympathy’ for De Lima

MANILA, Philippines — No fireworks but only “sympathy” for the office of Justice Secretary Leila de Lima.

This was Senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson’s offering for De Lima when they faced each other for the first time during the hearing of the Senate finance committee.

“I’d just like to set the tone of this hearing and I’d like to advise those who are present, media included, that they might be in for a big disappointment because there will be no fireworks today [Tuesday],” Lacson said before firing his first question on the proposed budget of the Department of Justice.

“In fact since last night, I’ve been looking at the budget, the proposed budget of the DoJ and I can only sympathize with them considering that they only have .54 percent of the entire pie, particularly with the budget allocated to the NBI [National Bureau of Investigation] and the BI [Bureau of Immigration],” he said.

The DoJ’s proposed budget for 2012 is P9.7 billion.

Before the start of the hearing, De Lima went to Lacson to shake his hands, which the senator accepted.

The two had been at odds when De Lima insisted on the arrest warrant against Lacson despite the court’s dismissal of the case filed against the senator over the killings of publicist Salvador “Bubby” Dacer and driver, Emmanuel Corbito.

Lacson went into hiding for over a year and surfaced only last March after the warrant of arrest was lifted.