The Senate Blue Ribbon Committee has allowed Rose Nono Lin’s request to suspend the arrest order issued against her for 10 days, Senator Richard Gordon said on Monday.
Gordon said they acceded to her request as her camp claims she is currently confined in a hospital for a “surgical procedure.”
“If Rose Nono Lin is indeed ill and needs to have surgery in a hospital, we are not heartless people to not allow such required procedure to be performed on her,” said Gordon in a statement.
The Senate blue ribbon panel had issued an arrest order against Nono Lin for skipping the committee’s hearings related to the multi-billion peso deal between Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp. and the Department of Budget and Management’s Procurement Service (DBM-PS).
Lin is a stockholder of a company linked to Pharmally. She failed to attend the panel’s last hearings with her lawyers saying she contracted COVID-19 and is experiencing gastric illnesses.
Gordon, however, said with or without Nono Lin the Senate’s probe will go on as necessary until the whole truth of the scandal is uncovered and the perpetrators are brought to justice.
“Rose Nono Lin’s husband remains outside of the country despite her being supposedly ill with COVID-19 and other maladies. This goes to show that he would rather be absent and far from his wife even during these times,” Gordon said.
“It tells us that his evasion of Senate summons is more important than providing succor to his spouse,” he pointed out.
“It must also be emphasized that Rose Nono Lin is not exempt from appearing in the continuing investigation nor will her supposed illness exempt her from justice,” the senator stressed.
In a Pasay City Regional Trial Court hearing on Friday, Nono Lin’s legal counsel sought the issuance of a temporary restraining order (TRO) and injunction seeking to prohibit the Senate from enforcing an arrest order issued against her for contempt due to her failure to attend two hearings despite the subpoena issued by the committee.
Nono Lin’s camp has also requested not to have the arrest order against her be implemented for 10 days while her lawyers undertake to study the cases further.