Senate gives Leila 15 days to respond to complaints

The Senate ethics committee has given Sen. Leila de Lima 15 days to respond to the separate complaints filed by leaders of the House of Representatives and a private individual for alleged obstruction of a congressional inquiry into the illegal drug trade at the New Bilibid Prisons (NBP) in Muntinlupa.

The committee, chaired by Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III, met yesterday to discuss the five complaints against De Lima.

Three, including one filed by lawyer Abelardo de Jesus, were dismissed due to lack of jurisdiction as the alleged offense – including failure to stop the drug trade at the NBP – were committed when De Lima was still justice secretary in the previous administration.

The remaining two – filed by Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, House Majority Lead- er Rodolfo Fariñas and Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali and De Jesus – were declared sufficient in form and substance for the ethics panel to tackle.

The meeting lasted for only about 15 minutes with Sotto presiding. Sen. Franklin Drilon, De Lima’s ally, did not make any objection.

“It ( taking jurisdiction) was a nobrainer,” Sen. Panfilo Lacson, a member of the ethics panel, said.

The two complaints were similar: that De Lima induced her former driver and bodyguard Ronnie Dayan not to attend the investigation of the House committee on justice, chaired by Umali, into the drug trade at the NBP in violation of Article 150 of the Revised Penal Code or “disobedience to summons” of Congress.

The offense is punishable by imprisonment or fine or both in the courts. In the ethics committee, De Lima may face sanctions or expulsion.

Sotto said the panel would review De Lima’s response and decide from there whether to pursue a full-blown hearing or junk the complaints.

Lacson said the panel hopes to resolve the matter within 30 days.

De Lima declined to issue a comment, saying she would prefer to wait for the official notification from the committee.

Last Jan. 13, the senator responded to a case filed by the House leaders before the Metropolitan Trial Court on the same charges.

She denied inducing Dayan to defy the summons and that the court lacked jurisdiction over the case.