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MANILA, Philippines — A previous Senate decision denying former Senator Leila de Lima the privilege of voting and participating virtually in Senate proceedings established a precedent against allowing the same arrangement for Sen. Ronald ‘Bato’ dela Rosa, election lawyer Romulo Macalintal said on Friday.
In a statement, Macalintal described the Senate majority’s argument to allow remote participation as “ridiculous, if not entirely frivolous,” noting that a resolution seeking similar privileges for de Lima when she was detained had been denied.
“If the majority is using that past incident as their logical framework, then online voting should be rejected even more strictly now because, as the records show, the said de Lima resolution was denied, and established a precedent—which still stands—that online voting and virtual participation in Senate deliberations are not allowed,” he said.
Macalintal pointed to Section 117 of Rule XLI of the Senate Rules, which states that “the vote of an absent senator cannot be counted.”
