Lawmaker, not driver, safe from traffic citations
Legislators may be safe from being apprehended for minor traffic violations, but not their drivers, according to two leaders of the Senate yesterday.
Reacting to the statement made by House Majority Leader Rodolfo Fariñas about how members of Congress should not be pulled over by traffic enforcers for violat- ing minor traffic rules, Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III and Minority Leader Franklin Drilon said this is true, but only to a certain extent and with conditions.
Both senators cited the constitutional provision on parliamentary immunity, the same article cited by Fariñas, which states that any senator or member of the House of Representatives cannot be arrested while Congress is in session.
“The Constitution states that anything less than six years imprisonment, you cannot be arrested while Congress is in session,” Sotto said.
But Drilon clarified that the immunity from arrest does not mean that the legislator is not liable for criminal offenses.
“You can’t be arrested but you remain liable of course. You can be charged but not arrested because it’s just a minor offense,” he said.
Both senators agreed that the drivers of the legislators are not covered by the immunity.
So in order to enjoy the immunity prescribed in the Constitution, they said that the legislator himself should be the one driving the vehicle.
Sotto, for one, said he drives his own vehicle, so “if I am flagged
down, I will say you cannot apprehend me because that is in the Constitution.”
If the driver is arrested and his legislator employer does not know how to drive, then both Sotto and Drilon said that the member of Congress should just walk to his destination.