Too much
There is a proposal to show an alleged sex video purportedly showing Senator Leila de Lima and her exdriver and supposed lover in action when the House resumes its inquiry into the proliferation of illegal drugs inside the national penitentiary at Bilibid. De Lima is at the center of this controversy owing to her alleged failure to curb this problem while she was the justice secretary during the previous administration.
The proposed showing of the sex video supposedly intends to prove the existence of a relationship between de Lima and her driver who, according to allegations, helped collect money from Bilibid drug lords for de Lima. According to the allegations, the money was used to fund de Lima's campaign for the Senate. In exchange, she supposedly looked the other way from what was going on inside the prison.
While there were raids conducted in Bilibid, some led by de Lima herself when she was justice secretary, these were supposedly mere red herrings to mask the real stench. De Lima has vigorously denied all the allegations and calls the investigation by the House as a retaliation by the Duterte administration for the investigation she launched at the Senate into Duterte's aggressive war on drugs that has resulted in the deaths of hundreds.
Now there is nothing that is happening to de Lima that she has not done even worse to another person. At the height of her power as justice secretary, she had the arrogance to defy a Supreme Court order allowing former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to seek medical attention abroad for a potentially life-threatening spine disorder.
Despite the lack of any legal obstacle to her leaving,
In the end, de Lima did file charges. And in the end, each one of them had been thrown out for insufficiency of evidence. In the end it was just a case of pure political harassment by an administration then in power against its political enemies. Now a new administration is in power and whether or not it is harassing de Lima, she has lost all her right to claim it. The Golden Rule makes sure of that.
Nevertheless, no matter how de Lima richly deserves her present troubles, I do not think it is right and in good taste to show the alleged sex video of de Lima and her ex-driver and supposed lover at the House inquiry. Even if there is no harassment involved or malice intended and the goal is purely to establish certain facts material to the purpose of the inquiry, I still think showing the video is not the only means to achieve that purpose.
Despite all the criticisms being made against Duterte's war on drugs, despite all the discomfort resulting from his inability to hold his mouth, the president continues to enjoy the support of the millions who elected him into office. He should not squander that vast political capital, which he clearly needs down the road, by allowing the House to foul up its act. The House should not stray from the right direction it is now taking.
While Duterte, constitutionally, cannot meddle in the affairs of a coequal branch of government, the House is in fact packed by members of his vast majority coalition. In other words, a word from him can dissuade the House from proceeding on a path that potentially hides a land mine. Showing the video can backfire and make the House lose all the gain it already has.
De Lima is already squirming in the wind, where most everybody love her to be. But one thing everybody needs to understand is that Filipinos are intrinsically a decent people. There are areas we do not wish to go, acts we do not wish to be a part of. Showing the sex video is too much, even in executive session. There is no way to stop its private showing, but it must never be kept for posterity as the only shameful part of our country's hallowed congressional records.