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Press Statement Re Vaudeville Committee on Justice Hearings

Press Statements

I did not attend and participate in the Committee on Justice investigation because the findings were pre-determined and were forgone conclusions that:

  1. There exists a narcotic trade in the New Bilibid Prison; and

  2. Sen. Leila de Lima has linkage to the prison drug deals.

Why then should I attend and participate in an obvious and odious vaudeville?

It was not necessary to investigate the existence of a drug enterprise in the National Penitentiary because this has been previously validated and raids were even conducted. It is an open secret and the only thing lacking is the prosecution of the culpable convicts.

The Committee on Justice has no jurisdiction to find Sen. De Lima culpable because the jurisdiction belongs to the prosecutorial agency of the government.

There was a comedy of errors from the start of the investigation:

  1. The Secretary of Justice brought in witnesses like inmates and officials of the NBI who are under his jurisdiction because the Bureau of Corrections and the National Bureau of Investigation are both attached agencies to the Department of Justice.

  2. Many of the witnesses were assisted by lawyers from the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO), which is another agency under the Secretary of Justice.

  3. The active participation of the Secretary of Justice in introducing his witnesses and propounding questions to them violated the Rules of the House on legislative inquiries in aid of legislation which limit the role of resource persons, like the Secretary of Justice, to making their statements and answer questions from the Committee Chair and Members.

  4. Any eventual prosecution arising from the inquiry will be submitted to the Secretary of Justice and investigated by the prosecutors under him to determine probable cause. Consequently, the Secretary of Justice is both inquisitor and judge.

  5. The Secretary of Justice, being the alter ego of the President, cannot actively participate in legislative proceedings in view of the principle of separation of powers between the Legislature and the Executive.

The investigation of the Committee on Justice was a malevolent odyssey to publicly shame Sen. De Lima and defang her campaign against extra-judicial killings related to President Duterte’s deadly drive against the drug menace and criminality.

 

 

EDCEL C. LAGMAN