JUSTICE Secretary Leila M. de Lima has flip-flopped on her position on the issue of immunity of Vice President Jejomar C. Binay from criminal prosecution in connection with graft accusations being hurled against him.
De Lima earlier indicated that Binay does not enjoy the same immunity from criminal suits accorded to the President while in power, but this time the justice secretary admitted that the Vice President cannot be prosecuted in court.
She said criminal prosecution of Binay may be limited by his being an impeachable official.
De Lima stressed that, while the Constitution is silent on the issue of immunity of impeachable officials, “conventional wisdom” in law practice is that criminal cases against them do not prosper in court until after they are impeached or have served their term in office.
“The Constitution states that impeachable officials shall not be removed from office, except by impeachment. It does not say categorically to what extent they may be subject to prosecutorial action without their impeachability being affected. Theoretically, they can be subject to criminal proceedings so long as they are not removed from office, such as what the Supreme Court [SC] has done with commissioners of the Comelec [Commission on Elections] in several cases when it cited said commissioners in criminal contempt,” she explained.
“However, the conventional wisdom among lawyers is that any criminal action against an impeachable official can only go so as far as filing an information. It is still up to the courts, especially the SC, to categorically decide on whether the filing of a criminal charge amounts to a violation of impeachability,” she pointed out.
De Lima added that the courts cannot even order the arrest of Binay should cases be filed against him.
“The initiation of a criminal case entails the issuance of a warrant of arrest, and this implies restraint on the person of the impeachable official that highly compromises his status as such,” she stressed.
De Lima believes that, if this issue reaches the SC, the ruling would most likely favor the Vice President.
“Most probably, the SC will treat the arrest of an impeachable official as a violation of his status of impeachability,” she explained.
De Lima’s statement seems to agree with the opinion of experts, including veteran election lawyer Romulo Macalintal, that the Vice President is an impeachable official—just like the President, justices of the SC, the Ombudsman and other constitutional officials—and, therefore, cannot be subject of trial in court without first having him impeached from office.
It can be recalled that de Lima earlier argued that Binay is not immune from criminal suit and could be investigated over charges of corruption allegedly committed when he was still mayor of Makati City.
“The principle of immunity from suit applies only to two entities, the State and the President. Among government officials, only the President is immune from suit. On the other hand, impeachability refers only to the mode of removal, not to immunity. Impeachability does not mean immunity. Thus, among the impeachable officials, only the President is immune from suit,” she earlier said.
Earlier, Macalintal rebutted the opinion of Senate President Franklin M. Drilon that Binay is not immune from suit.
“If the President is immune from suit, then all constitutional officials, like the Vice President, SC justices, members of constitutional commissions and the Ombudsman, who could only be removed by impeachment, are, likewise, immune from suit,” he said.
Macalintal believes that such position being pushed by Drilon and administration allies “smacks of unjust or invidious discrimination, thus, violative of the equal protection clause of the Constitution.”
The veteran lawyer cited relevant decisions of the SC to back his position.
2 comments
Someone with legal knowledge must has told DeLima she was wrong in her legal annoucement.
what else is new?