House summons Dayan, Jaybee

MANILA, Philippines - Five witnesses, including Sen. Leila de Lima’s alleged driver-lover Ronnie Dayan and inmate Jaybee Sebastian, have been summoned to the Oct. 5-7 resumption of the House of Representatives’ hearings on the alleged proliferation of drugs inside the national penitentiary.

Meanwhile, clamor against the showing of De Lima’s alleged sex video at the House hearing heightened, with the latest warnings coming even from President Duterte’s allies in Congress, Liberal Party senators, women’s rights advocates and Vice President Leni Robredo.

But President Duterte has decided to keep his hands off the matter, according to presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella.

“It is not his territory,” Abella said.

Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez confirmed to dzMM anchor Ted Failon yesterday that he “signed the subpoena” for the now missing Dayan and convicted kidnapper Sebastian, but that he couldn’t recall the names of the three others.

Two others turned out to be former Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) director Franklin Bucayu and former Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission executive director Reginald Villasanta. The identity of the fifth witness remains unclear.

Alvarez said Congress would not force Commando gang leader Sebastian, who sustained minor injuries in a riot Wednesday inside the maximum security compound, to appear if his doctors would advise him against attending the hearing.

Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali, chairman of the committee on justice spearheading the probe on the New Bilibid Prison, said the inquiry would go on even without Sebastian, since several inmates have executed their affidavits.

Several inmate-witnesses earlier testified in Congress that Dayan received P10 million, which former National Bureau of Investigation deputy director Rafael Ragos and NBI agent Jovencio Ablen Jr. delivered to De Lima’s residence in Parañaque.

De Lima had then named Ragos as BuCor director.

Rep. Robert Ace Barbers of Surigao del Norte agreed with Alvarez and Umali, noting that no less than Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II had said Sebastian’s testimony is unnecessary.

“It’s all right because anyway, according to Secretary Aguirre, we don’t need his testimony anymore to file a case against De Lima because Sebastian said he would just reveal information about a catering anomaly,” said Barbers, chairman of the House committee on dangerous drugs.

Sex video showing illegal

Even allies of President Duterte, who was the first to publicize De Lima’s alleged sexual affairs, cried foul over plans to show her reportedly racy videos in Congress.

Rep. Emmi de Jesus of Gabriela said playing the video material in public would violate Rep. Act No. 9995 or the Anti-Voyeurism Law.

“The law accords respect for human rights and penalizes acts that aim to annihilate any person’s honor, dignity and integrity,” De Jesus said. “It punishes, among others, the act of broadcasting photos, videos or recordings of sexual acts or any similar activities of a person, except for the purpose of suppressing or prosecuting the crime of photo or video voyeurism and upon court order.”

She said no person “deserves to be subjected to the prospect of one’s private affairs being exposed.”

Rep. Sarah Elago of party-list group Kabataan said the planned video showing “is not material to the committee’s investigation.”

“It is unnecessary,” Elago pointed out. “We hope the committee on justice will not do it.”

Gabriela and Kabataan are part of the Makabayan bloc of leftist party-list groups that support Duterte. They belong to the pro-administration majority coalition in Congress.

Liberal Party (LP) senators also warned congressmen yesterday that the plan to play the alleged sex videos of their ally De Lima in a public hearing is illegal.

In a joint statement, LP vice chairman Sen Franklin Drilon, Sen. Francis Pangilinan and Sen. Paolo Benigno Aquino IV described the plan as “disrespectful, deplorable and illegal.”

“Regardless of the authenticity of the alleged videos, viewing it is disrespectful to a sitting senator, to her person and to the office she holds, and is violative of the law,” they said.

They cited at least three laws that would be violated by the playing of the alleged sex videos, including the Anti-Voyeurism Act, which prohibits the recording or broadcast of videos of a sexual act, among others, with or without the consent of the persons featured in the material. Under the law, such recordings are also inadmissible even in legislative hearings.

The senators also cited Republic Act 4200 or the Anti-Wiretapping Law, which prohibits and penalizes the playing of recordings of any private communication without the consent of those involved.

As in the Anti-Voyeurism law, the Anti-Wiretapping law says that recordings are likewise inadmissible as evidence even in legislative hearings.

The LP senators also cited the Revised Penal Code, which calls slander by deed an act intended to cast dishonor, disrespect or contempt upon a person and a crime against honor that is punishable under the law.

“We appeal to the members of House of Representatives to be more circumspect of our larger roles as legislators: safe keepers of governance, traditions and examples to our children,” they said.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson reiterated that showing the sex videos is highly inappropriate and could also lead to the filing of charges against everyone involved in its exhibition.

“What’s the point of showing the video if nobody could authenticate it, for it to have evidentiary value?” Lacson asked.

Women’s rights

Sen. Cynthia Villar also reminded her counterparts in the House about respecting the rights of women, regardless of who the woman is in the videos.

“Regardless of the identity of the woman in the video, a woman’s dignity and rights will be violated with the exhibition of the sex video,” Villar said. “I implore our honorable colleagues in Congress to proceed with decency and sympathy for women in dealing with this matter.”

Women’s rights advocates opposed yesterday the planned showing of the videos at the next House hearing.

Gabriela said showing De Lima’s purported sex video is “totally wrong and totally inappropriate.”

“Showing of the alleged video muddles the issues central to the investigations into the links between government officials and the drug trade,” De Jesus said.

“Congressional hearings should focus its probe on the salient pieces of evidence that will point to the involvement of drug lords and government officials in the illegal drug trade with respect to existing laws,” she added.

For her part, the Vice President, who is also a lawyer, said playing the videos in the congressional hearing violates penal laws.

In a statement, Robredo, a partymate of De Lima in the LP, said she could not see how the playing of such video would help the probe in finding the truth about the proliferation of drugs in the NBP.

She urged her former colleagues in the House to “keep the proceedings calm, sober and objective as the investigation proceeds.”

“As a long-time advocate of human and women’s rights, I am profoundly disturbed by a proposal that amounts to the public shaming of a woman and the infliction of grave harm on her dignity as a human person,” Robredo said. – With Helen Flores, Marvin Sy, Giovanni Nilles