MANILA - Lawmakers who will push for the showing of Senator Leila De Lima's alleged sex video during a committee hearing may face legal consequences, an information technology lawyer said.
Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre said last week that De Lima's alleged sex video clips will establish the senator’s illicit affair with Ronnie Dayan, and why the driver was allegedly able to extract drug-tainted money from convicted crime lords when De Lima was still Justice secretary.
"But under Republic Act 9995 or the Anti-Photo and Video Voyeurism Act, even if a person agrees to be video taped while having sex, the video cannot be shown to others," Information Technology expert Atty. Jose Jesus Disini, Jr. said.
The law also covers peeping toms who videotape intimate acts without the involved parties' consent.
Violators of the law may be imprisoned between three to seven years, and may be fined between P100,000 to P500,000, Disini explained.
If the offender is a public officer he or she will be administratively liable, he added.
Should a court decide that the showing of the video violated De Lima's rights, the said video "can no longer be admitted as evidence in legislative hearings."
Lawmakers cannot make use of their "parliamentary immunity" that protects them from arrest as the privilege only covers "offenses that are punishable by not more than six years imprisonment," Disini said.
But the IT expert warned that filing of charges against lawmakers over the showing of alleged intimate videos may be a double-edged sword for De Lima as "she must admit that she is the one in the sex video for charges to be filed."
Though the House of Representatives has yet to decide on the matter, De Lima and her colleagues from the upper chamber have already cried foul over suggestions to make public the said tape.
SOURCE: ABS-CBN
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