MANILA, Philippines – Senate blue ribbon committee chairperson Senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson said contractor Pacifico “Curlee” Discaya and three Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) engineers will remain under Senate custody during the holidays.

Discaya and former DPWH engineers Henry Alcantara, Brice Hernandez, and Jaypee Mendoza are detained at the Senate after they were held in contempt by Lacson’s committee for refusing to cooperate in the flood control corruption probe.

Curlee and his wife Sarah are tagged in the multibillion-peso infrastructure corruption due to their firms’ allegedly anomalous government deals. The three engineers, meanwhile, are part of the probe due to their role in the alleged scheme of kickbacks inside the public works agency.

According to Lacson, the four filed leave requests to seek temporary release. The senator, however, asked Senate President Tito Sotto to deny the requests.

“I recommended to the Senate President that their request for Christmas furlough be denied mainly for security reasons, owing to the repeated media statements from Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. that arrest warrants against them will be issued before Christmas,” Lacson said.

“So the risk of escape becomes greater — not to mention that it makes no sense to grant such requests for Christmas leave if indeed warrants are coming out by then.”

The four were allowed to receive visits from their families and to hear Mass within the Senate premises.

“That’s the most that we can allow given the circumstances,” Lacson said.

Legislative chambers may cite resource persons in contempt when they are uncooperative. An individual held in contempt may be kept under custody “until he/she agrees to produce the required documents, or to be sworn or to testify, or otherwise purge himself/herself of that contempt.”

Lawmakers usually set a period for detention due to contempt, and may lift the order once they find the resource person cooperative. However, based on a landmark Supreme Court ruling on the Senate’s contempt powers, a resource person’s detention ends upon the termination of the legislative inquiry. – Rappler.com