Leaders of the House of Representatives have arrived at the Senate to serve the show-cause order to Senator Leila de Lima.
But before serving the order this Tuesday, House Majority Leader Rodolfo Fariñas and Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali, chair of the House committee on justice, first went to attend a bicameral conference hearing on the proposed P3.35 trillion national budget next year.
Fariñas and Umali, in separate interviews with Senate reporters, said they would file the show-cause order at the Senate Secretary after the bicam hearing.
“We will issue a show a cause order today, we’ll give her 72 hours to show why she should not be cited in contempt by the House of Representatives,” Fariñas said.
But when the three-day period lapses without a word from De Lima, then he said the House would file criminal and disbarment cases in courts against her and an ethics complaint before the Senate committee on ethics.
“We’ll let things run [their] course, bigyan natin sya ng (let’s give her an) opportunity to be heard,” he added.
READ: House, Senate concur: Ethics rap, not arrest warrant, vs De Lima
The House has issued the show-cause order against De Lima after she advised her former aide, Ronnie Dayan, not to attend its probe on the alleged proliferation of illegal drugs at the New Bilibid Prison when the senator was still Justice Secretary.
Dayan later testified at the probe and claimed to have collected money for De Lima from suspected drug lord Kerwin Espinosa.
Fariñas also confirmed that ordering De Lima’s arrest was no longer an option after the House leaders met with their counterparts in the Senate Monday night.
However, he said the normal course of action would be to issue an arrest order if De Lima would snub the show-cause order as earlier stated by Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez.
“Kasi nga ang lalabas e hindi tayo pantay pantay kung si Dayan pinaresto namin tapos si Senator De Lima hindi paparesto (Because it would appear that we are not equal if we would order Dayan’s arrest and then not do the same for Senator De Lima),” Fariñas said.
But to avoid a collision with the Senate, he said, the House agreed to drop its plan to order De Lima’s arrest. CDG/rga
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