Senate resolution filed vs US lawmakers for judicial interference

Senate President Vicente Sotto III and two of his colleagues filed a resolution rebuking some members of the United States Congress for interfering with the Philippine judicial process by calling for the release of Sen. Leila de Lima from detention and the dropping of charges against Rappler and its chief executive officer Maria Ressa.

In Senate Resolution 1037 filed on Wednesday, Sotto and Sens. Panfilo Lacson and Gregorio Honasan II said the criminal cases against De Lima and Ressa were already filed in court and the judicial process against them under way, so “the government cannot do anything but to let the wheels of justice take its course.”

The resolution stated De Lima is still being allowed to function as a senator even if she cannot personally attend deliberations due to her imprisonment for cases related to alleged links to the illegal drug trade.

The charges against Rappler and Ressa, meanwhile, were filed for alleged violations of the law and not for being critical against the administration, the resolution said. The charges include violation of Republic Act 10175 (Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012); RA 8424 (National Internal Revenue Code as amended); and Commonwealth Act 108 as amended (Anti-Dummy Law of the Philippines).

It added Ressa was allowed to post bail, which would debunk claims that the cases against her and Rappler were politically motivated.

Lacson said De Lima and Ressa were “incidental” to the intent of their resolution being entitled to fair justice and judgment by the courts handling their cases.

“But what we need to point out is that supremacism has no place in a civilized world regardless of race, color and status in wealth and power,” Lacson said.

Earlier, Lacson said a Philippine Senate resolution is needed to call out the US lawmakers behind the “inappropriate” resolutions.

“We are not their colony. We have a Constitution that provides for three co-equal branches and a judicial system where due process is followed, regardless of its flaws and weaknesses,” Lacson said in a post on his Twitter account on April 7.

Senate Resolution 1037 particularly scored the US lawmakers’ proposed Resolutions 233 and 142 for “being an affront to the sovereignty” of the Philippines and an “undue interference in its judicial process.”

House Resolution No. 233, filed last March 14, was authored by Reps. Karen Lorraine Jacqueline Speier of California’s 14th Congressional District; James Patrick McGovern of Massachusetts’ 2nd Congressional District; Hank Calvin Johnson Jr. of Georgia’s 4th Congressional District; Jamin Ben Raskin of Maryland’s 8th Congressional District; Bradley James Sherman of California’s 30th Congressional District; and Lloyd Alton Dogget II of Texas’ 35th Congressional District.