Senate Minority Leader Franklin M. Drilon said that relentless filing of ethics complaints against a number of senators has cheapened the process, urging his colleagues to view the ethics complaints filed before the senate committee on ethics “with extreme caution.”
Drilon made the statement in view of the recent filing of an ethics complaint against Senator Panfilo Lacson by former Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon.
“I am concerned that the frenzy that characterizes the filing of ethics complaints in the senate has severely cheapened the process and I urge the senate to be more circumspect in treating these ethics complaints,” Drilon said.
A number of complaints have been lodged against several senators including detained Sen. Leila de Lima, Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III, Sen. Sonny Trillanes IV and Sen. Lacson.
Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre is reportedly eyeing the filing of an ethics complaint against Sen. Risa Hontiveros after the Akbayan senator exposed in a privilege speech Aguirre’s exchange of text messages with a former congressman allegedly about proseuting the opposition senator.
“Calls have been made not to abuse the process of filing impeachment cases. Similarly, the filing of ethics cases should be exercised with caution,” he stressed.
“Insofar as I’m concerned, that is an aspect that I will be looking at when these cases come to the ethics committee for deliberation,” he added.
While this is a process that is available, it should not be abused, he concluded. | SENATE-PR
