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| Photo files from CNN Philippines |
Senator
Leila De Lima takes a swipe at Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III and
other Senate leaders for excluding her to join Senate sessions via teleconference
starting May 4.
For De
Lima, her exclusion, which will be formalized under Senate rules to be adopted
next week is nothing but a “petty politics.”
“SP (Senate
President) Sotto’s statement that the jurisdiction of the courts and the PNP
over my person prevents me from participating in Senate sessions via
teleconferencing is completely and absolutely misinformed,” she said on April 30.
She
stressed that Supreme Court is clear that she can still perform her duties as a
senator as long as she’s detained at Camp Crame.
De Lima
believes that Senate did not finalize the rules on holding sessions via Teleconferencing
in March so she could not participate in the special sessions.
“Now, there
is pressure to amend the Rules to allow members to participate in hearings and
sessions via teleconferencing and they make up an inexistent rule or reason
that supposedly prevents me from doing even that. I reckon that if I were not a
member of the opposition there would have been no ifs and buts in allowing me
to participate remotely, just like everybody else, under the proposed new
rules,” the lady senator said
De Lima said,
regardless of her political affiliation, her colleagues should have allowed her
to participate.
“Malinaw na
ayaw lang talaga ng mga nasa kapangyarihan na ipalahok ako sa mga deliberasyon
sa Senado. Kung ayaw, maraming dahilan. Kung gugustuhin, hahanap ng paraan. Di
ba?” De Lima explained
The senator
was detained at the Philippine National Police (PNP) Custodial Center in Camp Crame
over drug-related charges.
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