De Lima gives up Senate justice panel seat for Hontiveros

Detained Senator Leila de Lima on Tuesday said she was giving up her seat in the Committee on Justice and Human Rights for Senator Risa Hontiveros as the chamber deliberates bills on the death penalty following President Rodrigo Duterte’s renewed call for its passage.

In a statement, De Lima said that she wanted Hontiveros, a fellow justice and human rights champion, to be able to vote and fully join the committee or subcommittee hearings.

“Given my current situation and limitations where I cannot vote and wholly participate in Senate sessions and hearings due to my continued unjust detention, I am relinquishing my membership in the Committee on Justice and Human Rights in favor of Sen. Risa Hontiveros,” De Lima said.

De Lima, a vocal critic of Duterte, has been detained in Camp Crame since 2017 due to allegations of drug involvement in the New Bilibid Prison.

“As a courageous voice in the Senate who speaks truth to power and fights for justice and human rights, Sen. Risa’s participation and vote will definitely matter because she will always be on the side of justice,” she added.

On Monday, Minority Leader Franklin Drilon moved to elect Hontiveros to replace De Lima after reading her letter while Majority Floor Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri seconded the motion.

There was no objection.

According to De Lima, the giving of her membership is also a “tactical response of anti-death penalty solons to the earlier move within the camp of pro-capital punishment.”

Earlier, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian relinquished his membership in the Senate Committee on Justice for Senator Ronald Dela Rosa. —Joahna Lei Casilao/LDF, GMA News