The Department of Justice has denied the claim made by camp of detained opposition Senator Leila de Lima that convicted drug lord Vicente Sy recanted his testimony against her during the hearing recently of her illegal drug case before the Muntinlupa City Regional Trial Court.
The department, through Prosecutor General Benedict Malcontento, said Sy did not retract his testimony implicating De Lima to the illegal drug trade.
Malcontento accused De Lima’s camp of releasing part of Sy’s answer to the prosecutors’ questioning and not the entire testimony.
“It is not fair because we have to respect the independence of the courts. On our part, we will never engage in that kind of thing,” Malcontento said.
As a result, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra instructed the prosecutors handling the drug cases filed by the department against De Lima to file a petition for contempt against the latter’s camp for allegedly violating the sub judice rule.
Guevarra made the disclosure during the virtual Kapihan sa Manila Bay media forum where he insisted that the merits of pending court cases should not be discussed outside the courtroom.
He made the statement after De Lima’s lawyer, Boni Tacardon, claimed that Sy had recanted his testimony against the senator during the hearing of her drug case.
“I asked the prosecutors to keep the battle inside the courtroom and to consider the filing of petitions to cite for contempt certain persons who knowingly make comments or render opinions on the probative value of evidence being presented in court, with a clear intent to influence the judge’s appreciation of the evidence,” Guevarra said.
Tacardon claimed that Sy, one of the prosecution witnesses, had recently testified that he never met nor gave money to De Lima.
The lawyer alleged that this latest testimony had contradicted his earlier claim that he had contributed to P500,000 to De Lima’s senatorial campaign.
Malcontento said the petition to cite De Lima’s camp for contempt would be filed next week before the Muntinlupa RTC.