Panelo to De Lima: Resign and save Senate from embarrassment

Presidential legal counsel Salvador Panelo and Sen. Leila de Lima. INQUIRER FILE PHOTOS

Sen. Leila de Lima should resign as  senator after admitting her relationship with her former driver and security aide Ronnie Dayan, according to the chief legal counsel of President Rodrigo Duterte.

“The admission by De Lima on her romantic albeit illegal and immoral liaison with her bodyguard-driver validates the accusation of (President Duterte) that the senator committed unlawful and immoral acts and opens her to a criminal charge of adultery her lover being a married man,” Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo said in a statement on Tuesday.

READ: De Lima finally admits romance with Dayan

Duterte has accused De Lima of being involved in the illegal drug trade in the New Bilibid Prison (NBP). The Chief Executive said Dayan was her bagman.

Panelo said De Lima’s admission bolsters the case filed against the senator.

“It strengthens the case filed against her on her involvement in the drug operations,” he said.

The chief legal counsel said the neophyte senator could be expelled from the Senate.

“It opens her to expulsion proceedings in the Senate by the Senate Ethics Committee for immorality and grave misconduct in office, apart from opening herself to a disbarment proceeding as a member of the bar for immorality and unethical conduct,” he said.

“To save the Senate from further embarrassment, she must voluntarily resign,” he added.

Panelo said De Lima “has herself to blame for the present destructive predicament she is in.”

“With her aforesaid admission, President Duterte has been vindicated on his accusations against De Lima and put a lie to her pretended protestations of innocence and her cry of being a victim of persecution,” he said. JE/rga

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