VP says video showing ‘public shaming of a woman’

Vice President Leni Robredo on Thursday slammed the plan to show an alleged sex video of Sen. Leila de Lima at next week’s congressional hearing on the alleged drug trade at the national penitentiary, saying it was tantamount to “a public shaming of a woman.”

“As a longtime advocate for human and women’s rights, I am profoundly disturbed by a proposal that amounts to the public shaming of a woman and the infliction of grave harm on her dignity as a human person,” the Vice President said in a statement.

“As a former legislator, I fail to see how this will contribute to a substantial discussion of the issues being taken up. As a lawyer, I believe that this act may be in violation of penal laws,” said Robredo, a member of the Liberal Party (LP) like De Lima.

She called on her former colleagues and the leadership of the House of Representatives to keep the proceedings calm, sober and objective. “I have every faith that we will be up to this challenge,” she said.

De Lima, one of the sharpest critics of President Duterte, is at the center of the House justice committee’s inquiry into her alleged connection to drug lords in the national penitentiary during her tenure as justice secretary.

Held liable

Former Akbayan Rep. Etta Rosales angrily warned House members they would be held liable of violating the law if they pushed through with the proposal to play the alleged sex video of De Lima.

Rosales, who succeeded De Lima as Commission on Human Rights  chair, condemned as “despicable, disgusting and deplorable” the reported approval by Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez and Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II of the proposal.

Rosales reminded lawmakers of the fundamental right to privacy and cited several international laws that safeguard this, “even (though) we know for certain that this sex video is fabricated and, to quote Senator (De Lima), as fake as Mr. Aguirre’s peluca (toupee).”

She further reminded Alvarez and Aguirre that they would be held liable for violating the Anti-Photo and Video Voyeurism Act of 2009, which makes it criminal to record and distribute as well as publish or broadcast a photo or video of sexual intimacies of private individuals.

The women’s group Gabriela joined the chorus of objections against the plan to show the video at a House hearing.

“No man, woman or child, no matter how justified the case is presented for such proposals, deserve to be subjected to the prospect of one’s private affairs exposed,” said Gabriela Rep. Emmi de Jesus.

In the Senate, LP members on Thursday rallied behind party mate De Lima.

Senate President Pro Tempore Franklin Drilon as well as Senators Francis Pangilinan and Bam Aquino said the House plan to show the alleged sex video was “disrespectful, deplorable and illegal.”

In a joint statement, the three LP senators said the showing of the video would violate three laws—antivoyeurism law, antiwiretapping law and the Revised Penal Code on crimes against honor. Reports from DJ Yap, Nikko Dizon, Dona Z. Pazzibugan, Pocholo Concepcion and Christine O. Avendaño