Drilon: Senate to fully comply with suspension order

Senate President Franklin M. Drilon today said that the Senate will fully implement the Sandiganbayan's decision to preventively suspend for 90 days Senator Jinggoy Estrada on plunder charges.

Drilon said the "Senate will abide by the process in accordance with the Constitution and the laws."

"The Senate will respect every step in the investigation of this case. We will fully abide by the preventive suspension order issued by the Sandiganbayan and we will implement the order," he stressed.

"A senator who is preventively suspended cannot in any manner perform the function of his office within the duration of preventive suspension. He is barred from attending sessions, filing bills, holding committee hearings and signing committee reports," said Drilon, a lawyer and former justice secretary.

Drilon clarified that the suspension will not affect the functions of the Committee on Labor, which Estrada chairs, because it shall be taken over by the vice chairman who will attend to pending bills in the committee.

"We will continue to function despite the suspension order. The Senate is not about the senators and it is not about the pork barrel scam controversy. We have a mandate to fulfil and with our performance during the First Regular Session, we have proven that the Senate could not be hampered by any controversy," emphasized Drilon.