MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Leila de Lima has asked the court to recall the third warrant of arrest it issued against her, saying the illegal illegal drug trading charges filed against her by the Duterte administration were all “glaringly trumped-up.”
Last Tuesday, Nov. 28, Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 206 released a Nov. 15, 2017 two-page order to arrest De Lima, her former aide-driver Ronnie Dayan, and other co-accused after Judge Patria Manalastas-De Leon found probable cause in the cases slapped against them by the Department of Justice (DOJ).
De Lima appealed to De Leon to reconsider the new arrest order and defer her arraignment set on Dec. 8 pending the final outcome of her Supreme Court petition that “directly affects” a similar case lodged before Branch 204 of the same RTC.
“It is incumbent upon this Court…to hold in abeyance the scheduled arraignment. Otherwise, such an act would be tantamount to this Court pre-empting the Supreme Court, and arrogating unto herself the authority to have a final say on the jurisprudential effect of the Supreme Court’s decision,” she said in her 10-page motion for reconsideration.
De Lima’s camp argued that the allegations against the opposition lawmaker were based on “perjured testimonies” of convicted felons during a congressional hearing on supposed illegal drug trading inside the national penitentiary in 2012 and 2013 while De Lima was DOJ secretary.
In her plea, De Lima also asked Branch 206 to review what she called “fatal deficiency or infirmity” in the information or charge sheet filed against her.
“The Information, Complaint-Affidavit, and Attached Affidavits, and TSNs, all miserably fail to provide the existence of drugs that was allegedly attempted to be sold or was actually sold by the accused. Hence, the corpus delicti in the instant case is lacking — a matter that is readily admitted by the DOJ Panel in its Comment,” she said.
She explained that the Information failed to identify the actual seller of the illegal drugs, the identity of the buyer, the kind and quantity of the illegal drugs sold or traded, the consideration and the delivery of the illegal drugs, and the actual payment.
“Without these elements, alleged in the Information, the actual sale or trade of dangerous drugs can never be established,” the senator noted.
“It is impossible for the Honorable Court to determine the existence of probable cause for the issuance of a warrant of arrest since the Information is deficient of any of the essential elements charged,” De Lima further argued.
Also, the senator pointed out that in the two other cases pending with RTC Branches 204 and 205, the DOJ filed separate motions to admit amended Informations that seek to change the offense charged against her from one of drug trading to mere conspiracy to trade drugs.
“This means…a shift in the theory and narrative of the prosecution from an original charge that she allegedly traded drugs to an accusation that she just allegedly decided and agreed to trade drugs.”
In her opposition to the DOJ move, De Lima claimed that amending the Information against her violates her constitutional right to know the nature and cause of the accusation against her.
She further maintained that, given that her arrest and continued detention has been based on the original Information that accuses her of a certain crime, “the current move of the prosecution to change the charge altogether has proven that there is really confusion and official vacillation of the prosecution regarding what offense is being charged against her, which further highlights the fact that the charges against her are fabricated.”
“In the absence of physical evidence, and in the face of highly questionable statements of convicted felons, this recent development of changing the offense charge lends further credence to the observation that Senator De Lima is a victim of political persecution. More importantly, it means that all these charges are bogus,” her camp said.
