Sotto asks PNP to allow De Lima to fulfill Senate duties while in detention

The Senate President has requested the Philippine National Police (PNP) to allow detained Senator Leila M. De Lima to perform her senatorial duties within the premises of the PNP.
Senate President Vicente C. Sotto III wrote in a letter to PNP Director General Oscar D. Albayalde “to formally request the Philippine National Police (PNP)to allow detained Sen. Leila De Lima to exercise her functions as an elected senator of the country through the conduct of hearings on pending measures to the Senate Committee on Social Justice, Welfare, and Rural Development (Committee for brevity) — a committee which she chairs — inside the premises of the PNP Custodial Center.”
Mr. Sotto added that holding the position of Senate President, he is giving “full authority to discharge her duties as chair of the committee, particularly to conduct and personally preside over its hearings.”
This is similar, Mr. Sotto said, to what had been done on Senator Antonio F. Trillanes IV when the latter was in detention.
The reason for the Senate President’s request is so the Committee’s pending measures in the senate “will be given an opportunity to be heard and deliberated on by the Philippine Senate.”
The pending bills for consideration of the Committee are “if passed into law, will be beneficial to all the Filipinos in general and will give the marginalized sectors their needed boost,” said Mr. Sotto.
The Committee’s pending bills for consideration are the following: “1.) Public Solicitation Act; 2.) National Rotary Day, February 23 of Every Year, 3.) Magna Carta of the Poor, 4.) Magna Carta of Day Care Workers, 5.) Emergency Volunteer Protection Act, 6.) Social Welfare and Development Agencies Act, and 7.) Rural Employment Assistance Program Act.” — Gillian M. Cortez