DRAFT

COMMITTEE ON JUSTICE
20 September 2016/ HLEF/ I-1
----------------------

The meeting was called to order at 9:26 a.m.

THE CHAIRPERSON. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.

The meeting is now called to order.
May I know, ComSec, if please settle down, please. Those resource persons
invited will please take their seats.
We have invited, of course, Senator De Lima, Secretary Aguirre, Chief Public
Attorney, Persida Rueda-Acosta, Police Chief Superintendent Rolando Asuncion. Can
the Page please assist that those invited guests and resource persons be given their
seats.

NBP Superintendent Roberto Rabo, Chief, PNP Ronaldo Dela Rosa, Chief

Superintendent Benjamin Lusad of the Special Action Force, Usec. Isidro Lapea of
PDEA, Attorney Rosario Setias-Reyes of the IBP, Mr. Arsenio Evangelista of the VACC,
and

Secretary

Benjamin

Reyes

of

the

Dangerous

Drugs

Board,

or

their

representatives or their representative.

So, anyway, may I know how many Members of the Justice Committee are
present in todays hearing?
THE COMMITTEE SECRETARY. Your Honor, as per our attendance, we have
28 Members present right now and there is already a quorum, Your Honor.
THE CHAIRPERSON.

The Committee, as of the present, has 39 Members

already elected and there being 28 Members present, we now proceed to the next item
of the agenda.
REP. HENRY S. OAMINAL. Mr. Chairman, I move for the deferment of the
reading of the minutes of the previous Committee meeting.
THE CHAIRPERSON. Any second to the motion?
REP. VICENTE S.E. VELOSO. I second the motion, Mr. Chairman.
THE CHAIRPERSON. Any objection? There being none, the approval of the
minutes of the Organizational Meeting held last September 7, 2016 is hereby dispensed
with.
May I request now the Committee Secretary to please acknowledge the
Members present and the resource persons and/or guests invited for todays hearing.
THE COMMITTEE SECRETARY. The following are Members who are present
in todays hearing:

the Honorables Reynaldo Umali; Harry Roque; Henry Oaminal;

Arnolfo Teves; Arlene Brosas; Robert Ace Barbers; Greg Gasatava; Representatives

DRAFT
COMMITTEE ON JUSTICE
20 September 2016/ HLEF/ I-2
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Josephine Ramirez-Sato; Eugene De Vera; Lucy T. Gomez; Antonio Bravo; Abraham

Tolentino; Horacio Suansing; Lawrence Fortun; Rep. Ranie Abu; Alfredo Garbin; Ruwel
Peter Gonzaga; Fred Castro; Ruffy Biazon; also Representatives Romeo Acop; Arthur
Defensor; Vicente Veloso; Celso Lobregat; Ann Hofer; Ferdinand Hernandez; Isagani
Zarate; Representatives Lito Atienza; Jerry Treas; Bernadette Herrera-Dy; Anna Marie
Villaraza-Suarez; and also Representative Juliet Ferrer and Representative Sherwin
Tugna and our Majority Leader, Rudy Farias.
THE CHAIRPERSON.

What about the resource persons and/or guests, our

invited guests who are present?

THE COMMITTEE SECRETARY. We also recognize the presence of
Honorables Isagani Zarate and Ron Salo. We also have Representative Aurelio Dong
Gonzales and Representative Enrico Pineda.
THE CHAIRPERSON. Ladies and gentlemen, we are so sorry that we did not
anticipate that this Committee hearing will be as big as this. As you may have known,
we have silence, please. We have set this in Rooms 1 and 2 of the Mitra Building, but
then there was a request because we somewhat anticipated that the crowd will be
bigger. But then we did not expect that this will be this big, so I have already talked to
Atty. Arlene Dada, Deputy SecGen of the House of Representatives, if we can find a
bigger room that will accommodate all of us in the succeeding hearings that we will
conduct.
Of course, for your information, this Committee hearing will we will try to
extend it as far as practicable and we will also hold another Committee hearing
tomorrow because we have to do this because Plenary Budget deliberations will start on
the 26th.

So, this was the reason why we had to lump all of the three legislative

measures in this hearing so that we can really act with dispatch on urgent matters, most
especially that the President himself had already called the attention of Congress to to
hasten the hearings especially on the Death Penalty Bill Restoration Bill and the
Lowering of Juvenile Age, and, of course, this much awaited Resolution 105 that we will
also cover in todays hearing.
So while we await so can I request
(MS. LILIA C. LOPEZ-VALENCIA TOOK OVER)