De Lima: Albayalde given wrong legal advice on Senate request

Detained Senator Leila de Lima expressed sadness Friday over the decision of the Philippine National Police rejecting the request of Senate President Vicente Sotto III to allow her to conduct hearings while in detention.

De Lima said she believes PNP chief Director General Oscar Albayalde was provided with an incorrect legal advise as the Senate was just asking for her to be allowed to conduct hearings even without leaving the police headquarters in Quezon City.

“It seems PDG Albayalde has been given the wrong legal advice based on a misreading of case law, and I am sad about it,” she said in a handwritten press statement.

Sotto made the request to Albayalde, through a letter dated July 2, after he visited De Lima at the PNP Custodial Center in Camp Crame.

In his letter, the Senate President urged the PNP chief to allow De Lima to conduct hearings inside the detention facility on bills referred to her committee.

“Let it be stressed that Senate President Sotto, in his letter-request, is not asking that I be allowed to leave Camp Crame and attend hearings or sessions in the Senate premises. The request is simply to allow me to conduct committee hearings within Camp Crame,” said De Lima.

In denying the request of Sotto, Albayalde cited two Supreme Court decisions in his letter to the Senate President, the decision on Trillanes IV versus Pimentel, et al, dated June 27, 2008 and People vs. Jalosjos dated November 16, 2001. 

“[A]ll prisoners whether under preventive detention or serving final sentence cannot practice their profession nor engage in any business occupation, or hold office, elective or appointive, while in detention. This is a necessary consequence of arrest and detention,” the SC decision on Trillanes IV versus Pimentel stated as quoted by Albayalde in his letter.

De Lima said the ratio decidendi or main point in the case of Trillanes is actually the recognition by the court that a detained legislator could still “somehow accomplish legislative results” despite the limitations caused by the confinement in so far as it restrains the power of locomotion or physical movement.

“It was in light of this understanding that Sen. Trillanes was then allowed to conduct the hearings of his committee inside the custodial center,” she said.

She said it could not have been the contemplation by the court in the case of Trillanes, and even that of former Rep. Romeo Jalosjos before it, that a person under pre-trial or pre-sentence detention and who has been presumed innocent could not engage in any productive work, especially if one is to perform public functions as an elected official.

De Lima said, in any case, she fully appreciates the commitment of Sotto that he is reviewing his options on how to go about the issues. 

“I have every faith that Senate President Sotto and PNP chief Albayalde can come to an acceptable resolution on this matter. I remain hopeful for a satisfactory outcome that will be good for the institution and integrity of the Senate,” she said.

“Nais ko po talagang makapagtrabaho bilang bagong chairperson ng Senate committee on social justice, welfare, and rural development, kung saan may mga nakasalang na mga makahulugang panukalang batas,” he added.

At least six major bills, which the House of Representatives has already passed on third reading, are now pending before De Lima’s committee.

These are Public Solicitations Act, Magna Carta of the Poor, Magna Carta of Day Care Workers, Emergency Volunteer Protection Act, Social Welfare and Development Agencies Act, and Rural Employment Assistance Program Act. — RSJ, GMA News