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BY PRINCE GOLEZ
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MANILA – Minority bloc senators want Sen. Leila de Lima to participate in Senate sessions and public hearings.
De Lima is currently detained at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center in Camp Crame over drug-related charges.
She is “not a flight risk,” the minority bloc senators said in Senate Resolution No. 505.
The senator has repeatedly dismissed the charges against her, saying her detention was a form of political persecution.
Her allies said the Senate should take de Lima in custody pending the trial of her cases so she could continue her legislative duties.
In the resolution, Franklin Drilon, Paolo Benigno Aquino IV, Risa Hontiveros, Francis Pangilinan, and Antonio Trillanes IV also cited cases wherein detained senators were allowed to perform their duties.
“In the 1950s, Senator Justiniano Montano was charged with multiple murders, a non-bailable offense, but was allowed to post bail and perform his senatorial duties,” read part of the resolution.
Former Senate president Juan Ponce Enrile was also allowed by the Supreme Court to post bail for plunder charges and continue his legislative work until the his term ended in 2016, the senators said.
“The experience of a detained legislator being allowed to continue performing his/her duties is not new in Philippine politics,” they said.
De Lima has so far filed 55 bills and 55 resolutions while in detention./PN
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