Senators who took part in the June 4 blue-ribbon hearing conducted by the faction of Senate president Alan Peter Cayetano as well as its witnesses, may face charges, since they were not protected by parliamentary immunity, according to the chief of the National Bureau of Investigation.
‘Everything that they said there, the attacks they made, including the allegations they said that media are paid hacks-they can be held liable for libel or slander,’ NBI Director Melvin Matibag said during a roundtable discussion with Inquirer editors and reporters on June 5.
Matibag, a former law school dean, said the senators who led that hearing could be charged with usurpation of authority and violations of Republic Act No. 6713 or the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees.
On June 3-after two days without a quorum because of the absence of senators of the Cayetano bloc-the Senate was finally able to proceed with its order of business with Sen. Francis Escudero’s attendance allowing the upper chamber to reach a quorum of 12.
The minority at that time then declared a vacancy of key Senate positions including the top posts of the blue-ribbon committee occupied by Senators Pia Cayetano as chairperson and Rodante Marcoleta as one of the panel’s two vice-chairpersons.
The Cayetano bloc proceeded anyway with its planned hearing on June 4 but postponed it indefinitely, following inconsistencies in the testimonies of that hearing’s witnesses, the alleged former Marines who claimed to be ‘bagmen’ of resigned lawmaker and fugitive Zaldy Co.
The Armed Forces of the Philippines clarified that most of these witnesses are no longer connected with the military. The Philippine Navy had earlier noted that ‘majority’ of them were dishonorably discharged while four of them had never served in the Marines.
Other former lawmakers also agreed that the June 4 hearing was not official in character.
Former Senate President Franklin Drilon noted that the hearing did not go through the proper procedure and did not have a secretariat in charge of its official recording.
In a statement on Saturday, former Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers called the hearing an ‘Illegal assembly.’
‘If the assembly is illegal and aimed at attacking the government and other people, done inside a government owned infrastructure and us[ing] government funds, this becomes an affront and challenge to the legitimate government,’ Barbers said.
‘Is this not a ground for the filing, at the very least, of graft charges against the leaders and participants of this illegal, seditious, and rebellious assembly?’ he added.