Sotto: Even SC recognizes Senate power to contempt

Senate President Vicente Sotto III stressed Thursday that even the Supreme Court recognizes the Senate’s power to cite a person in contempt amid the petition filed by three Bureau of Corrections officers detained for allegedly ‘lying’ during the legislative inquiry last week.

Sotto said he received the petition for the issuance of a writ of habeas corpus filed before the Court of Appeals by BuCor records chief Ramoncito Roque, legal chief Fredric Anthony Santos, and Bilibid hospital medical officer Ursicio Cenas.

During the resumption of the hearing on controversies surrounding the implementation of the Good Conduct Time Allowance (GCTA) law, the Senate leader said the Supreme Court has already issued a ruling upholding the chamber’s power.

“Nevertheless, it is recognized that the Senate’s inherent power of contempt is of utmost importance. A legislative body cannot legislate wisely or effectively in the absence of information respecting the conditions which the legislations are intended to affect or change,” Sotto read part of the ruling.

“Requests for such information are often unavailing and also that information that is volunteered is not always accurate or complete. So some means of compulsion is essential to obtain what is needed through the power of contempt during legislative inquiry,” he added.

Senator Richard Gordon, committee chairman, said he was already aware of the petition filed by the three as he explained that he was initially hesitant to cite them in contempt but they were very evasive in their answers during the hearing.

“I don’t want to put people in contempt. I was hesitant to put them in contempt pero talaga naman e merong very, very evasive, ayaw sumagot. That’s the way it is. We have to protect the Senate from that,” he said.

Minority Leader Franklin Drilon agreed with his colleagues, saying the power to contempt makes the Senate more efficient in getting the needed data and information.

“If we don’t have that power, we can never get the needed data and information for us to be able to craft the correct policy. So that being evasive or not responding to questions would result in the Senate not being able to perform its job and therefore the contempt as a coersive power is there and sustained by the Supreme Court,” he said.

Roque, Santos, and Cenas were ordered detained  last Thursday upon the motion by Senator Ronald dela Rosa. 

Cenas was accused of receiving money from inmates to let them stay at the prison hospital. He did not explicitly deny taking money from former Valencia City, Bukidnon mayor Jose Galario Jr., a graft convict, but said the prisoner insisted he take the money as a gift.

Santos, meanwhile, was questioned regarding the grant of good conduct time allowances (GCTA). Explaining after Dela Rosa moved to cite him and his two fellow officers in contempt, he said he thought the awarding of the credits was automatic. He claimed he might have been confused as he was stressed at the time.

Roque, for his part, was accused of receiving money to process the GCTA of inmates, an allegation he denied. He was also castigated for supposed errors in a BuCor list of inmates convicted of heinous crimes who served shortened sentences because of GCTAs. — RSJ, GMA News