Senator Leila de Lima and Richard Gordon (INQUIRER FILE PHOTOS)
The House of Representatives can’t order the arrest of Senator Leila de Lima unless she has committed a crime that is punishable with prision correccional or imprisonment of six months to six years, Senator Richard Gordon said on Monday.
Gordon noted that the House is accusing De Lima of obstruction of investigation when she allegedly advised her former driver and partner, Ronnie Dayan, against attending its probe on the proliferation of illegal drugs at the New Bilibid Prison.
This prompted the House to issue a show-cause order against De Lima and should the latter refuse to act on it, Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez said he might be forced to order her arrest.
READ: Speaker won’t let go of De Lima, presses contempt charge
Sought for comment on Alvarez’s statement in a television interview, Gordon said, “Well they can, but whether they can implement it, is another thing.”
“They can do anything that they want pero syempre to implement it, alam niyo naman e hindi ma-i-impede ang senator na mag-attend ng hearings unless ang crime niya e prison correccional (They can do anything they want, but implementing it, a senator can’t be impeded from attending hearings unless the crime is prision correccional). Ito e obstruction of an investigation by a co-equal branch of Congress.”
Gordon explained that a lawmaker could only be arrested during sessions of Congress “when the crime is punishable by prision correccional, which is six years.”
Instead of issuing a show-cause order, he said, the House should have just made a request to the Senate President to have De Lima explain her supposed interference in the probe or just file an ethics complaint against her.
“Dapat hindi tinutulak ang Senado. Kung meron talaga silang problema, they can file an ethics case against Senator De Lima because medyo serious yan e, medyo breach of investigation na sinabihan niya ‘yung tao na huwag humarap, so ethical ‘yun,” Gordon said.
(They shouldn’t push the Senate. If they really have a problem, they can file an ethics case against Senator De Lima because it’s quite serious, it’s a breach of investigation when she told him not to face the probe, so that’s ethical.)
READ: Senators point to rules, legalities on possible De Lima arrest
But the Senate, he said, would not also allow that the rights of its members are violated.
“Syempre poproteksyunan namin ang karapatan rin ng isang senator, hindi dahil senator pero na va-violate ‘yung kanyang rights (Of course we’ll protect the rights of a senator, not because they’re a senator but because their rights are being violated),” Gordon added. JE/rga