Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto – Photo from Vicente Tito Sotto/Facebook
Senate President Vicente Sotto III on Thursday said a draft committee report on alleged anomalies in flood control projects is not official and cannot be made public.
Sotto emphasized that the report, prepared by the Blue Ribbon Committee headed by Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo Lacson, remains a draft and is still under consideration by committee members.
“It’s a draft and therefore not official. If the other committee members have not even read or seen it, it cannot be made public. They met yesterday [and] agreed on how the committee report may be filed,” Sotto told reporters.
The statement came after lawyers Eldrige Marvin Aceron, Sikini Labastilla, and Purificacion Bartolome-Bernabe filed a petition on Feb. 4 seeking full disclosure of the draft report.
The seven-page petition cited media publications of the draft and reports that Senators JV Ejercito, Juan Miguel Zubiri, and Sherwin Gatchalian had withdrawn their signatures from the document.
Aceron said the petition asks for the release of the full draft, preservation of all prior versions including the originally signed copy, and written explanations from the senators who withdrew their endorsements.
The petition also requests a certified copy be furnished to the Senate ethics committee for pending complaints, and that Senator JV Ejercito recuse himself from proceedings involving Senator Francis Escudero.
Citing Article III, Section 7 of the 1987 Constitution, Aceron said the request is based on the public’s right to information on matters of public concern, adding, “Self-executory. No permission needed.”