(Eagle News) – A day after filing an ethics complaint with the Senate against Senator Leila De Lima, House leaders today filed a criminal complaint against her with the Department of Justice for snubbing the House inquiry on the illegal drug trade and for instructing her driver-bodyguard to hide and do the same.
The House leaders who filed the criminal complaint were House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, House Majority Floor Leader Rodolfo Farinas and House Committee on Justice Chairman Reynaldo Umali.
The complaint was for De Lima’s violation of Article 150 of the Revised Penal Code.
“As an incumbent Senator, former Secretary of Justice and a lawyer, advising and inducing Mr. Dayan to hide and not to attend and/or appear in the House inquiry for which he was duly summoned is tantamount to inducing disobedience to summons issued by Congress, of which she is a sitting member,” the complaint stated.
Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II received the complaint.
Article 150 of the Revised Penal Code is for “disobedience to summons issued by the National Assembly, its committees or subcommittees, by the Constitutional Commissions, its committees, subcommittees or divisions.”
According to this article, the penalty for any violation is “arresto mayor” or a fine ranging from P200 to P1,000, or both such fine and imprisonment.
It said this shall be “imposed upon any person who, having been duly summoned to attend as a witness before the National Assembly, (Congress), its special or standing committees and subcommittees, the Constitutional Commissions and its committees, subcommittees, or divisions, or before any commission or committee chairman or member authorized to summon witnesses, refuses, without legal excuse, to obey such summons, or being present before any such legislative or constitutional body or official, refuses to be sworn or placed under affirmation or to answer any legal inquiry or to produce any books, papers, documents, or records in his possession, when required by them to do so in the exercise of their functions.”
“The same penalty shall be imposed upon any person who shall restrain another from attending as a witness, or who shall induce disobedience to a summon or refusal to be sworn by any such body or official,” article 150 of the Code said.
The criminal and ethics complaints were filed after De Lima had left the country for alleged previous engagements in the United States and Germany.
De Lima snubbed the house hearings on the illegal drug trade at the national penitentiary which were set on September 20 and 21 and October 5 and 6.
“Respondent opted to ignore all invitations and failed to attend any of the hearings conducted by the Committee,” the complaint stated.
“Worse, respondent even insulted the House of Representative by calling its Committee a kangaroo court/committee and its proceedings a sham.”
Congress issued a show cause order on October 6 against Dayan for failing to appear in Congress.
In a later House inquiry, Dayan testified that he had been instructed by De Lima through a text message to snub the House hearing.
De Lima’s instructions allegedly came through two text messages received by Dayan’s daughter, Hannah May, whom he had initially requested to text De Lima on October 1, 2016.
Hannah initially texted De Lima saying he was asked by his father to text her, as they had just received a subpoena for him to appear at the House hearing investigating the NBP illegal drugs trade.
She told the lawmakers during the November 24 House inquiry that the text was: “Hi Tita. Gud pm po. May tinatanong po si Pa. Bakit daw may subpoena siya at anong gagawin nya?”
The text was dated Oct. 1, 2016 at 5:38 p.m.
The lady senator texted at 6:14 p.m. on the same date: Pakisabi sa kanya, magtago lang muna sya. kagagawan yan ni Speaker Alvarez at dikta ni Digong. Pagpipiyestahan lang siya at kaming dalawa kapag nag-appear siya sa hearing na yan.
Hannah said her follow-up text was: “Hindi po ba siya huhulihin kapag di siya pumunta?”
To this, De Lima replied: “Hindi ba nagtatago naman siya?”
Because of this, Dayan said he decided not to appear at the hearing.
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