Senate votes to declare De Lima's committee vacant

The Senate on Monday voted to oust Senator Leila de Lima from the chairmanship of the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights.

Sixteen senators voted to approve Senator Manny Pacquiao's motion for the Senate to declare the committee chairmanship and membership vacant.

Four voted against and two abstained.

Senate Majority Leader Vicente "Tito" Sotto moved to nominate Senator Richard Gordon as the new chairman of the committee, which the latter accepted.

With no opposition, Gordon was declared as the new chairperson of the panel.

Gordon, in accepting the chairmanship, promised an "objective" hand as the head of the committee.

Pacquiao made the motion to declare De Lima’s vacant after Senator Alan Peter Cayetano accused De Lima of being biased against President Rodrigo Duterte.

Pacquiao and Cayetano are both close allies of Duterte.

The motion to declare De Lima’s panel vacant was then discussed by the senators in a one-hour caucus.

After the meeting, the motion was taken up, and was opposed by De Lima’s allies, Senate President Pro-Tempore Franklin Drilon and Senator Risa Hontiveros.

“We believe there is no basis for the motion,” Drilon said.

The committee on justice is holding a probe on alleged extrajudicial killings and summary executions amid the Duterte administration’s war on drugs.

Sotto said the probe on the killings attributed to Duterte's war on drugs will continue.

De Lima will remain a member of the committee, along with Pacquiao, Cayetano, Pangilinan, and Senators Miguel Zubiri and Grace Poe.

'Duterte behind my ouster'

In an interview on "24 Oras" moments after her ouster, De Lima said there was no doubt that Duterte was involved.

"Wala po akong duda na may kinalaman diyan ang ating Pangulo," she said. "Imposible po walang kinalaman dito ang ating Pangulo."

De Lima said she saw the writing on the wall that she will be ousted from the committee while listening to Senator Alan Peter Cayetano's privilege speech slamming her for her criticisms of Duterte.

"Pinag-usapan na nila ito," she said. "Plinano na nila ito. It was a done deal."

De Lima said she figured that Duterte was angry at the testimony of Edgar Matoboto, the self-confessed hitman who accused the president of ordering murders and bombings when Duterte served as mayor of Davao City.

De Lima said that her ouster was the president's way of getting back even as he has not addressed the issue publicly.

Sought for comment, Malacanang said the Senate was independent of the executive department.

"It's a separate branch of government so we leave things to its leadership," Presidential Communications Office chief Secretary Martin Andanar  said in a message to reporters. —JST/NB, GMA News