De Lima surrenders to CIDG

MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Leila De Lima turned herself to arresting authorities on Friday following the issuance of an arrest warrant against her by a Muntinlupa court.

From her Senate office in Room 502, she was escorted to the agents of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) led by Chief Superintendent Roel Obusan.

The surrender comes after De Lima spent the night in her office at the Senate. The CIDG team also spent the night in the Senate premises.

Presiding Judge Juanita Guerrero of the Regional Trial Court Branch issued the warrant after she had found probable cause in the case filed by the Department of Justice (DOJ).

“After a careful evaluation of the herein information and all the evidence presented during the preliminary investigation conducted in this case by the Department of Justice, Manila, the Court finds sufficient probable cause for the issuance of Warrants of Arrest against all the accused Leila M. De Lima, Rafael Marcos Z. Ragos and Ronnie Palisoc Dayan,” Guerrero said in her arrest order.

The case in Branch 204 is just one of the three cases filed by the justice department. The other two cases are with Branch 205 (Judge Amelia Fabros-Corpuz) and Branch 206 (Judge Patria Manalastas-de Leon). These cases were raffled off on Monday.

The office of De Lima expressed surprise over the order of Guerrero considering that the judge arrived from a trip only yesterday.

De Lima is battling three drug suits in relation to her alleged involvement in the illegal drug trade at the National Bilibid Prisons (NBP) during her time as justice secretary of the Aquino administration.

Aside from the senator, Rafael Ragos, former Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) officer in charge and deputy director of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), and Ronnie Dayan, former driver and lover of the senator, were ordered arrested by the court.

De Lima has maintained that President Rodrigo Duterte is behind her legal woes, saying that the president wanted her behind bars because of her intense criticism of the Chief Executive's vaunted anti-drugs campaign.