Senator Vicente “Tito” Sotto III, chair of the ethics panel, said they have chose to keep the complaint confidential so that the committee’s investigation would go unhampered while it is deliberating if it has sufficient jurisdiction over the case and while they are still scouting for a general counsel.
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President Rodrigo Duterte hits Leila De Lima anew, asking his political nemesis to resign from her post as Senator. That’s why its not easy for us to decide on the matter immediately.
At Tuesday’s organizational meeting, Sotto said “we informed the members of the committee that there is a complaint filed against a senator”.
President Duterte just recently released the drug matrix showing the allege link and role of senator Leila De Lima in illegal drug trade inside the New Bilibid Prison.
In his two-page complaint, Abelardo de Jesus said de Lima “miserably” failed to uphold the attributes of a public officer as secretary of the Department of Justice and as a senator, which is tantamount to betrayal of public trust.
The president had previously accused De Lima of having an affair with her driver, who he claims was the one responsible for making the collections from the drug lords. “Then I’m going to face the Congress?” she added.
De Jesus also asked the Senate ethics committee, which will have jurisdiction over the case, to request the Office of the President for “evidentiary matters to warrant and justify the penalty sought to be imposed against respondent”.
De Lima dismissed the complaint as part of the harassment tactics against her.
De Lima said she has not yet received the copy of the De Jesus complaint.
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She said her critics were just trying “to break her spirit”. Now that the tables have been turned on her, she says the charge of immorality against her is “foul” or “below the belt”. That’s all I will do because that’s what I know is true.
