{"id":100774,"date":"2017-05-02T23:39:14","date_gmt":"2017-05-03T03:39:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=100774"},"modified":"2017-05-02T23:39:14","modified_gmt":"2017-05-03T03:39:14","slug":"pimentel-on-de-limas-request-to-join-senate-sessions-let-the-court-decide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/05\/02\/pimentel-on-de-limas-request-to-join-senate-sessions-let-the-court-decide\/","title":{"rendered":"Pimentel on De Lima\u2019s request to join senate sessions: Let the court decide"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"However,<\/a>
However, Pimentel said that according to Senate rules, De Lima had to be present to be able to interpellate, debate and vote. (Photo: Philippine News Agency<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA\u2013Senate Pres. Aquilino Pimentel III on Tuesday said that it us up to the court to decide on whether to allow detained Sen. Leila de Lima to participate in Senate sessions particularly in the deliberations of measures.<\/p>\n

\u201cNasa court na yung issue (The issue is already in the court), so let the court decide. Let her lawyers work,\u201d Pimentel told reporters in an interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe court can ask, or the Senate President can initiate as an amicus curiae if the court would ask but I don’t think it’s the case so it is not important. It is only done if it is a difficult question of constitutional law,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

However, Pimentel said that according to Senate rules, De Lima had to be present to be able to interpellate, debate and vote.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, she did not need to be present to file resolutions and bills.<\/p>\n

\u201cAng rules kasi namin (According to our rules), you must be present to be able to interpellate, to debate, and to vote, but you need not be present to file resolutions, to file bills,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cYung mga need not be present na things (The things you need not to be present), we can still do, but those that need your presence, what can we do? You must be physically present,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Sen. Panfilo Lacson, in a separate interview, said De Lima\u2019s request has yet to be discussed.<\/p>\n

\u201cPag-uusapan namin sa majority (We at the majority will have to talk about that),\u201d Lacson said, however, noted that he was in favor of maximizing the participation of all Senators.<\/p>\n

\u201cKung ako tatanungin, kasi ginawa namin kay Sen. (Antonio) Trillanes, but it entails additional facilities. Kasi kung teleconferencing, kailangan mag-install pa tayo rito (If you ask me, we did it before with Sen. Trillanes but it entails additional facilities. If it\u2019s teleconferencing, we need to install facilities here),\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Lacson, however, said that De Lima could not be allowed to vote as the rules clearly state that she would have to be physically present.<\/p>\n

\u201cVoting, she cannot. Kasi ang voting kailangan physically present ka. But kung if at all papayagan, participate in the deliberations. Pero sa voting, I don\u2019t\u2026 kasi mag-violate kami ng rules (To vote, she would have to be physically present. She might be allowed to participate in deliberations but in voting, that would violate the rules),\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Asked if De Lima would be allowed to leave her detention cell to vote, Lacson said that it was not within the Senate\u2019s authority to allow her that request.<\/p>\n

The legal team of detained Sen. De Lima is currently studying legal options for her to be allowed to attend sessions at the Senate.<\/p>\n

She is currently detained at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center in Camp Crame, Quezon City on drug trafficking charges.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u2013Senate Pres. Aquilino Pimentel III on Tuesday said that it us up to the court to decide on whether to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":100776,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95,483],"tags":[15062,18562,18621],"class_list":["post-100774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","category-politics","tag-sen-leila-de-lima","tag-senate-pres-aquilino-pimentel-iii","tag-senate-sessions","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}