“Instead of considering the merits of my request, apparently the Senate President instead has himself dug up jurisprudence against it,” De Lima, who is presently detained over drug-related charges, said in a statement.
“Senator Koko Pimentel is the Senate President, not the Secretary of Justice. He is opposing a detained senator’s performance of her mandate as if he was the government prosecutor. He should let the DOJ prosecutors argue against me, and not ahead of them,” she added.
On Monday, Pimentel called De Lima’s plea for support from the Senate leadership as “propaganda.”
De Lima, former election lawyer of Pimentel, said the Senate President’s statement “trivializes” the legitimacy of her request.
“I cannot understand the hostility of the Senate President to a simple request for help from a fellow senator who is in detention to perform her mandate,” De Lima said.
“He is there to look after the other senators and to make sure that they are able to perform their mandate to the extent possible and allowed by law,” she added.
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