Rodolfo Fariñas, the same congressman who believes that legislators should be exempted from traffic laws, said that they should also not be subject to the same law enforcement as everyone else.
Fariñas filed a bill last night proposing the creation of the “Philippine Legislative Police (PLP).”
He said the purpose of this bill is to “ensure lawmakers’ safety and enforce its subpoena powers.”
“The reliance of Congress on the law enforcement agencies … impairs, to a large extent, the independence of Congress from the executive department,” Fariñas was quoted in Inquirer.net.
“The system of checks and balances fundamentally requires the independence of the branches of government and only through such independence that the ends of government are better achieved,” he added.
The bill proposes that PLP officers will have the same qualifications, salaries and benefits, retirement age, and equivalent rank of members of the Philippine National Police.
While Fariñas finds a separate police force for congress necessary, it is important to note that the House inquiries are done for the purpose of aiding legislation and have no constitutional powers to convict anyone accused of crimes.
And while Fariñas also noted that Congress did not have the “manpower or capability” to protect its legislators, the bill did not state how much the creation of such a force would cost.
The case of Senator Leila de Lima, a former justice secretary and now detained opposition senator, was also cited as justification to create such a police force.
She is accused of masterminding a drug trafficking ring at the New Bilibid Prison and ignored a summon to a House inquiry on the proliferation of illegal drugs in the prison earlier this year.
