Macalintal disputes De Lima: Binay can’t be sued

By: Tetch Torres-Tupas - 10 years ago

MANILA, Philippines—Is Vice President Jejomar Binay immune from suit or not?

Justice Secretary Leila De Lima believes that only the State and the President are immune from suit, although both the President and Vice President can only be removed from office by impeachment.

But election lawyer Romulo Macalintal disagreed.

Lawyer Romulo Macalintal. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

He believes that like President Benigno Aquino III, Binay also enjoys immunity from suit.

“Immunity from suit of the President, Vice-President and other constitutional officials is not provided for in our Constitution nor in any existing law. It is a mere tradition. Thus, if the President is immune from suit while in office, the same privilege could be extended to Vice-President Jejomar Binay considering that the Office of the Vice-President is regarded as a component of the Executive Department of the government,” Macalintal said Wednesday.

But he said that Binay and even the President are not immune from investigation.

“However, such immunity from suit does not immune them from investigation to be conducted by the Ombudsman to determine if there are grounds for their impeachment which could be submitted to the House of Representatives which has jurisdiction over impeachment cases,” he added.

“In other words, a criminal case will not prosper because it carries with it the penalty of removal from public office which will violate the constitutional provision that these officials could only be removed by impeachment.”

Macalintal said, if ever, the prosecution of the criminal case shall wait until the constitutional official is removed from or ends his or her term of office.

Macalintal explained that as early as 1984, the high court, in Lecaroz vs. Sandiganbayan, already ruled that to criminally charge an impeachable official while in public office violates the clear mandate of the fundamental law.

The Department of Justice has started its probe on the allegations that Binay amassed ill-gotten wealth.

Aside from the alleged overpriced parking building in Makati that purportedly profited the then mayor of the city, Binay was accused of owning a huge chunk of land in Batangas.