Senator Leila De Lima’s alleged advice to her former driver to snub the hearing of the House of Representatives is now part of an ethics complaint earlier filed at the Senate ethics committee, Senate Majority Leader Vicente “Tito” Sotto III said on Monday.
Sotto disclosed that a supplemental complaint has been filed by lawyer Abelardo de Jesus before the Senate ethics committee, accusing De Lima of violating Article 150 of the Revised Penal Code when she allegedly stopped Ronnie Dayan from attending the House probe on the alleged proliferation of illegal drugs at the New Bilibid Prison.
“Article 150 of Revised Penal Code is disobedience to summons…for example, restraining a person or another from attending summons of the national assembly which is the Congress,” the senator said in an interview.
“I just received it today (Monday) and I just sent it to the other members of the committee today,” he said of the supplemental complaint.
Sotto said the House, which issued a show-cause order against De Lima, need not file a new ethics complaint before the ethics committee if the lower chamber is already satisfied with the supplemental complaint.
“We can tackle this complaint as soon as possible, and I will talk to our members to set the meeting because this has no jurisdiction issue because the alleged complaint was done when she was already a senator,” he added.
De Jesus confirmed filing a one-page supplemental complaint against De Lima.
He said De Lima violated Article 50 of the Revised Penal Code when she discouraged Dayan from testifying at the House.
“It’s just a one-page supplemental complaint. I did not elaborate anymore,” the lawyer said in a phone interview.
De Jesus noted De Lima’s text message to Dayan’s daughter, which was made public during last week’s hearing in the House. The text message showed the lady senator advising Dayan to hide, warning him against testifying at the House probe.
The complainant said he would still insist on the morality issue that he earlier raised against De Lima in the complaint since both the senator and Dayan already admitted that they had an affair./ac