Unperturbed by the Senate inaction on the show cause order it issued to Sen. Leila M. de Lima, the House of Representatives will proceed to planned steps to extract accountability from the senator for allegedly trying to sabotage a House inquiry into the alleged New Bilibid Prisons illegal drug trafficking operations in which she was implicated.
Key opposition and administration bloc leaders agreed that the Senate’s stonewalling is a demonstration of the senators’ disregard of inter-chamber courtesy which House Speaker Pantaleon D. Alvarez and other House leaders readily acknowledged when they decided to course the serving of the show cause order through the Senate Secretary General.
House Deputy Speaker Fred Castro (PDP-Laban, Capiz) and Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali, chairman of the House Committee on Justice, said the House may now proceed to file a criminal complaint against De Lima before the Regional Trial Court, pursue her disbarment, or ask the Senate to penalize her for unethical conduct.
House Senior Deputy Minority Leader Lito Atienza (Buhay party-list) and Deputy Minority Leader Eugene de Vera (ABS partylist) said another copy of the show cause order should be sent directly to De Lima, who, as a lawyer herself, may raise legal technicalities as a defense for her “unethical and unlawful acts” in connection with the Justice committee inquiry into the NBP drug deals.
Atienza described “old boys club mentality” the Senate’s reported refusal to serve the show cause order to De Lima. (Ben R. Rosario)