When a public official gets suspended by virtue of a crime they committed and were likewise charged with at the Sandiganbayan, a lawyer said that the budget allocated for the operations of their office should be withheld.

Atty. Dino de Leon said that their group, Advocates of Public Interest Law (APIL), was calling on Senate leadership to withhold both the budget and salary of the offices of senators that were either suspended or were absent from their office for an extended period of time.

De Leon explained that one of the factors that they considered in calling for such a sentiment was the fact that the office of recently suspended Senator Jinggoy Estrada remained fully functioning and able to support his constituents.

“If the principal is suspended, why is it that the office continues to function? Isn’t it that the office cannot function because the principal is suspended?” the lawyer said.

“To give strength and to fully implement the suspension, the operations of the office should stop if we really want the suspension to happen,” he stressed.

De Leon stated that he was not amenable to the notion that the staff of a senator or congressman that was facing penalties as prescribed in Philippine law were still being given their salary, particularly as a taxpaying citizen in the country.

“The salaries and the budget of the staff of the office must be withheld by the Senate leadership,” he said.

The calls of the lawyer were also said to have stem from the continued absence of Senator Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa who remains at large with an active warrant of arrest from the International Criminal Court in the crimes of humanity case against former President Rodrigo Duterte.

Another official that De Leon mentioned was Senator Rodante Marcoleta who is facing a case of plunder and violation of Presidential Decree No. 46 at the Sandiganbayan.

Plunder under Philippine law is a non-bailable charge that states in one of its sections that any public official charged with the same would be suspended from their office.

“Any public officer against whom any criminal prosecution under a valid information under this Act whatever stage of execution and mode of participation, is pending in court, shall be suspended from office,” Section 5 of the anti-plunder law states.

Notably, the Sandiganbayan Third Division which was raffled with Marcoleta’s plunder case has yet to issue an official warrant of arrest against the senator.