{"id":81173,"date":"2016-09-16T06:22:36","date_gmt":"2016-09-16T10:22:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=81173"},"modified":"2016-09-16T06:22:36","modified_gmt":"2016-09-16T10:22:36","slug":"de-lima-pulls-request-place-alleged-ex-dds-hitman-senate-protective-custody","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2016\/09\/16\/de-lima-pulls-request-place-alleged-ex-dds-hitman-senate-protective-custody\/","title":{"rendered":"De Lima pulls out request to place alleged ex-\u2018DDS\u2019 hitman into Senate protective custody"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Sen.<\/a>
Sen. Leila De Lima. (Facebook photo<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA\u2014Senator Leila de Lima, Chair of the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights, on Friday withdrew her request asking Senate President Aquilino \u201cKoko\u201d Pimentel III to approve the committee\u2019s recommendation to grant alleged ex-Davao Death Squad (DDS) hitman Edgar Matobato with Senate protective custody.<\/p>\n

This after Pimentel\u2019s office announced that he has denied the informal request of Senator Antonio \u201cSonny\u201d Trillanes IV, who himself requested that the witness be placed under legislative immunity in a hearing on Thursday.<\/p>\n

De Lima before withdrawing the request said that she would ask a lawyer to handle the taking of Matobato\u2019s accounts and convert it into a judicial affidavit for future proceedings before the request for custody is formalized.<\/p>\n

Instead, she said that she would bring the issue to the Committee, with the goal of asserting its power as a Senate Committee conducting an inquiry in aid of legislation to grant the witness protective custody.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am perplexed, disturbed, and extremely disappointed with the Senate President\u2019s refusal to grant protective custody to Edgar Matobato,\u201d De Lima said.<\/p>\n

The neophyte senator reiterated that the grant of protective custody to witnesses may not be in the Senate Rules, but noted that it is a long-standing practice, probably in aid of legislation.<\/p>\n

She insisted that the grant of custody is a Senate power and not a \u201cprerogative of the Senate President.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is my submission that the Committee on Justice and Human Rights as a standing committee of the Senate has the authority to grant protective custody to a witness testifying before it, on behalf of the Senate as a whole,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n

The former justice secretary further said that the protection of Senate witnesses is paramount, especially those endangered for shedding light on crimes.<\/p>\n

She pointed out that Matobato has provided the Senate information that sheds light on the complexity of the current anti-drug campaign, especially on the similarity of the DDS and that of the vigilante killers.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026His testimony merely shows that what is transpiring now in this country has happened before in Davao City,\u201d De Lima sad.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis testimony raises the legitimate question of whether the DDS has anything to do or is in fact involved in the nationwide War on Drugs, at least insofar as the aspect of extra-judicial and vigilante killings are concerned,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u2014Senator Leila de Lima, Chair of the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights, on Friday withdrew her request asking …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":81174,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,1145,16,95],"tags":[10823,12229,3447,2407,11129,2444],"class_list":["post-81173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-davao-death-squad","tag-edgar-matobato","tag-koko-pimentel","tag-leila-de-lima","tag-philippine-senate","tag-rodrigo-duterte","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81173","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=81173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}