House committee on justice chairman Rep. Reynaldo Umali. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / LYN RILLON
More than a year after he filed a case against Sen. Leila de Lima for her “disobedience to summons,” House justice committee chair, Rep. Reynaldo Umali, took the witness stand on Friday, saying he had filed the case in his “personal capacity” because he was “personally hurt” by the senator’s snub of the House hearing.
Oriental Mindoro’s 2nd district representative was cross-examined by De Lima’s lawyer, Teddy Rigoroso, before the Quezon City Metropolitan Trial Court Branch 34 in a continuation of hearings on the disobedience case that Umali had filed along with House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez and Majority Floor Leader Rodolfo Fariñas on Dec. 21, 2016.
“Being chair of the committee is personal to me,” Umali said on the witness stand. “One of the things not understood by many is that [being committee chair] of the House of Representatives is a difficult task … [De Lima’s actions were] an affront on my ability … [It] affected (my) discharge of duties and functions as committee chair.”
Delay in hearings
De Lima’s disobedience, Umali said, had caused delay in the committee hearings that tackled her alleged involvement in the proliferation of illegal drugs in the New Bilibid Prison.
The senator, he added, had induced her former bodyguard, Ronnie Dayan, to snub the House proceedings.
“When she defied the committee, it is a violation of the rules of the House and an affront to the whole institution itself,” Umali said, adding that he had received instructions from both Alvarez and Fariñas to take “necessary actions” against De Lima.
De Lima, who attended the hearing and has been detained on the alleged drug charges since February 2017, had slammed the case as mere harassment.
No personal knowledge
But Umali said he had no intention of withdrawing the case despite admitting that he had no personal knowledge of the text messages that De Lima, Dayan and his daughter, Hannah Mae, had exchanged after Dayan went into hiding.
The messages were later used as evidence in the case.
“If we do not pursue this, then other witnesses would follow suit,” Umali said.
Asked by De Lima’s lawyer why the House did not pursue a similar case against Ilocos Norte Gov. Imee Marcos, who had also initially snubbed a House probe on the tobacco funds, Umali said Marcos’ case was handled by another committee.