SPEAKER Pantaleon Alvarez said Monday the House leadership would take what he called the necessary action against Senator Leila de Lima whose members earlier said had been obstructing justice.
Alvarez said his office was still waiting for the recommendation from the House committee on justice, chaired by Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali, which conducted the probe into the illegal drug trade at the New Bilibid Prison.
The Department of Justice has turned down the appeal of Senator Leila de Lima to have her graft and drug trafficking charges transferred to the Office of the Ombudsman.
At the Department of Justice, Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II stressed there was no valid justification to grant the plea of De Lima to stop the DOJ from conducting its preliminary investigation on the four complaints filed by the Volunteers against Crime and Corruption, the National Bureau of Investigation, former NBI deputy directors Reynaldo Esmeralda and Ruel Lasala and high-profile inmate Jaybee Sebastian.
“There is no valid reason at all to transfer the cases to the Ombudsman. The respondents should not be allowed to choose their investigators, and engaged in forum shopping,” Aguirre said in a text message.
This means the continuation of the preliminary investigation hearing scheduled on Dec. 21, when De Lima and other respondents are required to answer the charges and file counter-affidavits, will proceed.
De Lima failed to show up during the first preliminary investigation hearing on Dec. 2.
But she instead filed a motion, through a representative, asking the DoJ to refer the four cases to the Office of the Ombudsman, which she said had impartiality to investigate the charges against her, to allow “an objective and independent investigation on said cases.”
Alvarez, however, stopped short of saying De Lima might be arrested, adding “She is a very scheming person… [if we pursue the issuance of arrest order], she might draw sympathy from the people as if she is being harassed when she is not.”
De Lima had argued the charges against her as a public official were within the exclusive original jurisdiction of the Ombudsman according to the 1989 Ombudsman Act.
“The importance of an independent and impartial investigation, forming part as it is of the fundamental right to due process, cannot be overemphasized,” De Lima stressed.
However, Aguirre disagreed with De Lima’s argument, saying “her standard defense is that DoJ is manufacturing evidence against her in all four [cases] where she is being accused as the drug protector. Yet, she has not presented any iota of evidence to prove her accusation.”
”The DoJ is just performing its function of investigating criminal complaints against her and co-accused. We are considering her cases as ordinary complaints. She was always acting as if she is someone special and above the law,” Aguirre said.
Nonetheless, Aguirre granted the request of De Lima for him to inhibit in the complaints should they reach his office upon petition for review after resolution by the prosecutors.
“I already inhibited myself a long time ago,” he pointed out.
The Justice Secretary said he decided he would no longer interfere after signing a Department Order consolidating the four complaints for violations of Republic Act 9165, or Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act, and graft against De Lima so as not to undermine the independence of the five-man committee.
The other respondents who were able to attend or send representatives in the first hearing to get copies of the complaints were former DoJ undersecretary Francisco Baraan III, former Bureau of Corrections Director Franklin Jesus Bucayu, De Lima’s former aide Joenel Sanchez, De Lima’s nephew Jose Adrian Dera; NBI Deputy Director Rafael Ragos; former New Bilibid Prison Supt. Richard Schwarzcopf Jr.; NBI agent Jovencio Ablen Jr.; Bucayu’s alleged bagman Wilfredo Elli; Baraan’s former subordinate Jesusa Francisco and de Lima’s secretary Lyn Sagum.
Seven other respondents—NBP inmates Sebastian, Herbert Colanggo, Engelbert Durano, Vicente Sy, Wu Tuan Yuan alias Peter Co and Jojo Baligad—as well as Julius Rejuso, alleged bagman of Baraan; former BuCor Director Reinier Cruz; and Ronnie Dayan, De Lima’s former driver and boyfriend failed to appear or send a representative before the DoJ.
