SENATE Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III has filed a bill to exempt public officials from the imposition of a preventive suspension if the offense charged against them was committed before their incumbency.
Under Senate Bill 1207, Sotto wants to amend section 13 of Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act by providing an exception to the imposition of preventive suspension against public officers.
Sotto’s measure proposes no preventive suspension order should be implemented against any incumbent public officer who is “no longer connected with the office wherein the offense charged was committed.”
“As preventive suspension is imposed to prevent an accused from influencing potential witnesses or tampering with records, the change in the circumstances of the public officer being charged effectively removes the aforesaid threat, thus defeating the very spirit and intent of the law,” Sotto said in the bill’s explanatory note.
“To correct such ambiguity, this measure is introduced,” he said.
Sotto pointed out that RA 3019 was enacted in 1960 “with the laudable intent of breathing life into the time-honored principle that a public office is a public trust.”
He said the law penalized certain acts committed by public officers and private individuals to curb corrupt practices and graft in corruption.
“Almost six decades had passed since its passage, thus the prevailing conditions then might be different from now. Therefore, amendment thereto is now being sought,” the senator said.
As majority leader, Sotto also currently chairs the Senate committee on rules, which is studying Sandiganbayan’s letter, directing the Senate President to implement the suspension order against Senator Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito over the alleged anomalous purchase of high-powered firearms when he was still mayor in San Juan City in 2008.
Senate President Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III earlier said his office, under the rules, has no power to suspend a member of the chamber.
“The letter of the Sandiganbayan instructs the Senate president to implement the suspension order. If you look at the rules of the Senate, in the enumeration of the powers of the Senate President, it is not there to suspend a member of the Senate,” said Pimentel.