De Lima appeals court prohibition on joining Senate sessions online
MANILA, Philippines — Detained Sen. Leila De Lima filed an appeal before a Muntinlupa court’s dismissal of her motion to be allowed to participate in Senate proceedings through videoconferencing.
De Lima appealed the Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court Branch 205’s junking of her motion to be allowed to take part in Senate sessions, committee hearings and meetings via teleconferencing from her detention place.
A copy of De Lima’s motion for reconsideration, filed through her lawyer Teddy Rigoroso, was made public on Friday.
The court, in rejecting the detained senator’s plea, said granting her motion “is no different from allowing her to attend there physically.”
But her lawyer argued that “there is nothing in the law” that prevents De Lima from performing her legislative duties so long as she stays in her place of detention.
They argued that SC rulings on former Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and ex-Rep. Romeo Jalosjos, lawmakers who continued their duties while detained, “are clear on this.”
The senator also said that the court has not intervened with her dispensation of duties as a senator, so long as these were rendered from her detention cell. “There is no reason now why the Honorable Court would treat this case on teleconferencing differently.”
Early in May, the Senate amended its rules to allow the conduct of teleconferencing for its sessions, prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic and the implementation of stronger measures to curb its spread.
While De Lima’s lawyer admitted that the reason of her not being physically present at the Senate is neither due to force majeure or an emergency situation, “there is no legal barrier in the application of these Senate rules.”
They insisted De Lima is still a senator, and “there is no reason why Senate rules that would aid and benefit her in performing these functions and availing of these prerogatives should not be applied to her.”
De Lima has been detained at the police headquarters since February 2017 over drug-related charges.
She is accused of having a hand in the proliferation of illegal drug trade at the New Bilibid Prison during her stint as justice secretary, an allegation she vehemently denied.
Sen. Leila de Lima on Saturday marked the first year of her detention at the Philippine National Police detention center in Quezon City.
Ahead of the anniversary of her arrest, the Senate minority and various rights groups called on the Philippine government to release her immediately.
The Department of Justice initially charged De Lima for drug trading, but over the months, the state prosecutors filed motions to amend the charges and indict the senator on conspiracy to commit drug trading instead.
De Lima is known as one of the most outspoken critics of President Rodrigio Duterte's administration.
Detained former Sen. Leila De Lima expresses dismay over the Solicitor General's petition for certiorari agains her acquittal.
"I am, of course, greatly dismayed by the OSG's move in elevating to the CA the judgment of my acquittal in one of my 3 trumped-up drug cases," De Lima says in a dispatch.
"An acquittal is an acquittal, a final and conclusive disposition of the merits of the case which, under firmly settled case law, is no longer appealable, save for very exceptional grounds or circumstances, none of which can be legitimately invoked to question the 12 May 2023 Decision of the RTC-Muntinlupa, Br. 205 exonerating me and my co-accused," she adds.
"What is exceptional here is the persistence of my persecutors to perpetuate this travesty of justice by keeping me incarcerated," the former senator and justice secretary concludes.
The remaining drug case against former Sen. Leila De Lima was raffled off to the Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court Branch 206, sala of Presiding Judge Gener M. Gito, her legal team says.
The remaining drug case against detained former senator Leila De Lima will be handled by Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court Joseph Alcantara.
The case is re-raffled off to Court 26 after Judge Romeo Buenaventure inhibited himself two weeks ago.
De Lima is battling the drug case after years of being accused of receiving around P70 million from alleged illegal drug trade collection at the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City from 2013 to 2015.
Council for People’s Development and Governance, a network of 60 non-governmental organizations, on Independence Day, called for the release of former Sen. Leila de Lima.
In a statement, CPDG has condemned the “injustices endured” by de Lima, including political prisoners and those behind bars waiting for their cases to be heard. This, they said, highlight “the disturbingly biased and problematic nature of the Philippine justice system -punishing mostly the powerless and targeted.”
“It is a critical juncture in our nation’s history, demanding that the Philippine government under [President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr.] genuinely upholds his promises to rectify the prevailing ‘unfreedoms’ within our society,” they add.
Department of Justice prosecutors file an appeal on the Muntinlupa court’s dismissal of the conspiracy to commit drug charge against former Sen. Leila de Lima.
The prosecution filed a Motion for Reconsideration before the Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court Branch 204 that acquitted De Lima on May 12—clearing her of her second drug case.
They say in their appeal: “With all due respect, the Prosecution most respectfully moves for the reconsideration thereof on the ground that jurisprudence dictates and the circumstances of the instant case reveal that the subsequent recantation of the witness Ragos was not able to vitiate his original testimony given in open court.”
Prosecutors also argue “there are other pieces of evidence on record to prove all the elements of the crime charged, including the role played by both accused [De Lima and her ex-aide Ronnie Dayan] in the illegal drug trading inside the [Bilibid].” — Kristine Joy Patag
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