PRESS STATEMENT
Rep. Edcel C. Lagman
1st District, Albay
0916-6406731
20 September 2016

An "extrajudicial killing" occurred in the Senate with the ouster of Senator Leila De Lima as Chairperson of the Committee on Justice and Human Rights.

The premeditated removal of De Lima was a summary punishment for her crusade to stop the proliferation of a culture of violence.

It is a blockage of the search for truth.

Arguments of protecting the Chief Executive’s image as well as of the country in the international community is a lame excuse for disallowing a legislative inquiry to go through its course under a militant chair.

It is a patent censorship and suppression of an independent legislative inquiry.

The investigation cannot anymore continue unimpeded under the threat of coercive measures.

The ouster of De Lima hangs as a sword of Damocles and a stern warning to other Senate Committee Chairs that they must “behave”, otherwise they would be axed.

Inter-chamber courtesy cannot bar the condemnation of acts inimical to the democratic process and an independent legislative investigation, an inherent power of legislatures.

EDCEL C. LAGMAN