De Lima arrest still an option – Speaker

MANILA, Philippines - Issuing a warrant for the arrest of Sen. Leila de Lima for alleged obstruction of justice remains an option for the House of Representatives, Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez said over the weekend.

“I will wait for the recommendation of the committee on justice. If they request for the issuance of a warrant of arrest, I might issue it,” he said in a television interview.

He said De Lima should not ask for the protection of the Senate because it was she “who disrespected the House by interfering in our inquiry into the illegal drug trade at the New Bilibid Prison.”

He added that the Senate was not involved in her supposed misconduct.

On Friday, justice committee chairman Rep. Rey Umali of Mindoro Oriental said the House was “contemplating” the filing of four cases against De Lima, including a complaint with the Senate ethics committee.

Umali did not say if his panel would still pursue the arrest option.

Majority Leader Rodolfo Fariñas has said he preferred the other options of lodging an ethics complaint with the Senate, a criminal case for obstruction of justice and impeding a congressional investigation with the court and a disbarment petition with the Supreme Court.

De Lima has admitted to advising her former driver-bodyguard Ronnie Dayan to ignore the House subpoena for him to testify in its inquiry and to go into hiding.

Dayan, who heeded her advice, was subsequently arrested and the House held him until he gave his testimony.

“It was obstruction of persecution,” not of justice, De Lima said in defending her giving such advice to her former driver.

She claims President Duterte, Alvarez and other administration allies are persecuting her.

The Speaker denied an alleged agreement he had with Senate leaders last Tuesday night that the House would not issue an arrest warrant to avoid a confrontation with senators, and would just file a complaint with the Senate ethics committee.

He said he could not remember any such agreement. He met with Senate leaders, including Majority Leader Vicente Sotto lll, just hours after Fariñas and Umali delivered to Senate secretary Lutgardo Barbo a show-cause order asking De Lima why she should not be cited for contempt for telling Dayan to ignore the House subpoena and go into hiding.

On Wednesday, Sotto said they had agreed in their meeting the night before that the House would no longer issue a warrant of arrest and would just file a complaint with the ethics committee, which he chairs.

“We will act on it together with other pending complaints,” he said. Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III, Sotto and their colleagues do not know yet what to do with the House show-cause order intended for De Lima but delivered to Barbo.

De Lima and her allies, led by Senate President Pro-Tempore Franklin Drilon, said the Senate should tackle it in caucus or plenary session, since it involves its independence and inter-chamber affairs and courtesy.

It’s the first time that the House is asking a senator to explain her behavior and threatening her with arrest, they said.

De Lima said she would submit only to the jurisdiction of the Senate.

Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II, for his part, said he is willing to give in to the request of De Lima to inhibit himself – but not his prosecutors – from the preliminary investigation linking her to the illegal drug trade at the NBP.

“I myself will inhibit. No problem with me,” he said.

In her Omnibus Motion, De Lima also sought the inhibition of DOJ’s five-man panel of prosecutors headed by Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Peter Ong.

“They (prosecutors) cannot (inhibit themselves) otherwise no one will investigate,” Aguirre emphasized.

De Lima had suggested that the investigation be left to the Office of the Ombudsman, but the DOJ secretary said that the case would “definitely” stay with the department.

During last Friday’s preliminary investigation into the NBP drug trade, De Lima did not appear and only sent Senate staff Romeo Siazon to get copies of the four complaints filed by the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC), former National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) deputy directors Reynaldo Esmeralda and Ruel Lasala, high-profile inmate Jaybee Sebastian, and the NBI.

Out of the 19 total respondents, seven neither showed up nor sent legal counsel or representative.

For those who failed to make an appearance, the DOJ panel would send them a copy of the complaint either tomorrow or Tuesday next week along with the subpoena informing them the next scheduled hearing is on Dec. 21 at 2 p.m.

They should also submit their counter-affidavits during the Dec. 21 preliminary investigation. – With Evelyn Macairan