This came after leaders and members of the House of Representatives agreed that they would have a tough time expelling Singson even if the Wan Chai district court in Hong Kong convicts the accused legislator with the offense of illegal drug trafficking.

House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. himself admitted the probability of Singson holding on to his position as a member of the 15th Congress considering the existing rules of the House Committee on Ethics on expulsion cases.

“Remember this, even if he (Singson) shoots someone in front of people, if you don’t get the two-thirds vote of (members in the lower) Congress, theoretically, of course (he cannot be expelled). We need the two-thirds vote,” Belmonte explained.

Citing the rules in the House of Representatives, the top House official said that the leadership needs two-thirds or a total of 189 votes from 283 lawmakers favoring the expulsion case against Singson.

House Majority Leader and Mandaluyong City Rep. Neptali Gonzales also disclosed that Singson may even evade any sanction from the institution if lawmakers failed to muster the needed votes.

“He cannot be expelled nor be suspended without the two-thirds vote,” Gonzales said in a text message.

Critics said that such existing rules have made it easier for the House of Representatives to impeach a president, which would need a one-thirds or a total number of 94 votes, than expelling a fellow legislator in the Lower House.

Akbayan Party-list Rep. Walden Bello agreed, saying that Singson still has 40 percent chance of clinging on to his post even if an international court would find him guilty of trafficking illegal drugs in Hong Kong.

“If he is convicted of trafficking by the Hong Kong court, I would give (the) expulsion a 60 percent chance. So it’s really much better for all concerned and his own honor if he resigns,” Bello said.

The party-list lawmaker added that it would still be an “uphill struggle” to expel Singson even if he is found guilty of committing the lesser offense of illegal drugs possession due to the “state of congressional ethics” in the House of Representatives.

“Given the state of congressional ethics and what Rousseau called as the tendency of parliaments to develop a corporate will as opposed to following the general will, yes, unfortunately (Singson may not be expelled),” Bello said.

But Belmonte immediately came to defend the House of Representatives and its rules, saying that the leadership still has to extend due process to Singson, who has been prohibited to go back to the country since his arrest in July.

“That’s in the Constitution. It would be much more embarrassing if we do not follow our own Constitution,” he said.

Calls for Singson to resign have grown louder in the Lower Chamber after John Reading, the defense counsel for Singson, told Hong Kong authorities that they will plead guilty to illegal drugs possession to lessen possible sentence of conviction drug trafficking charges last week.

Ria Rose Ribaya, Manila Bulletin