What goes around comes around.

Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III inferred the law of karma in the case of detained Senator Leila de Lima who, along with other Liberal Party-allied senators, asked the Senate leadership to support her court request to allow her to vote on “critical” bills.

Senate leaders are not keen on granting the appeal, although they would not say it outright.

In a letter to Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III dated May 11, De Lima asked her former client for a “modicum of support” or a “semblance of assurance” that he still cares about his colleagues, citing the mandate of 14 million votes she got in May 2016.

“This is not too much to ask, considering that I have not yet been stripped of my office, and no penalty has yet been imposed on me,” she added.

Asked about De Lima’s appeal, Pimentel, party mate of President Rodrigo Duterte, only said: “Try. Keep on trying. Wala namang masama (There’s nothing wrong with that). [Convince the courts] through motions. And motions are filed by lawyers.”

Sotto was more straightforward when asked about the matter. For him, it all boils down to the LP’s refusal to extend the same support to then minority leader Juan Ponce Enrile, who was detained over alleged misuse of pork barrel funds. Senator Franklin Drilon, an LP senator, was the Senate president at the time.

“Nangyari noong araw ‘yan. Meron akong resolution, nagpapapirma ako sa mga senador, calling for the courts na i-consider edad ni Senator Enrile na puwede payagan umattend ng Senate [sessions] as minority leader. Leadership ng Senate noon ‘di pumayag. Sabi sa amin, ‘di raw nararapat kami makialam sa korte. ‘Di namin dapat impluwensyahan ang desisyon ng korte. Ewan ko ano pagkakaiba noon at ngayon,” Sotto said.

(It happened before. I was gathering signatures for a resolution calling for the courts to consider the old age of Senator Enrile, if they could allow him to attend the Senate sessions as minority leader. The leadership of the Senate then did not agree. They told us, we should not interfere with the court. We should not influence the court’s decision. I don’t know what’s the difference then and now.)

“Majority of the Senate would probably follow that line; that was the line used before. Kung ginawa ‘yun, pinayagan noon, madaling-madali ito dahil meron ng precedent (If they allowed it before, this would be really easy now because there is already a precedent),” he added.

As for Pimentel, he maintains rules are rules and his former lawyer should just rely on the court to grant her plea. – Rappler.com