Detained opposition senator Leila de Lima filed on Thursday, March 25, a motion seeking the voluntary inhibition of Muntinlupa City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 205 Judge Liezel Aquiatan – the same judge who acquitted her in one of her three drug cases.

The De Lima team said Aquiatan’s “blatant errors” should prompt the judge to conduct self-introspection and voluntarily drop the case.

“De Lima deserves a presiding judge who will dispense justice in this case without fear or favor. Considering her recent actions, it appears that the Honorable Presiding Judge is not that judge,” said the motion.

Aquiatan acquitted De Lima in one of the three charges of conspiracy to commit drug trading, but moved to trial on the second. The third is with another court, Muntinlupa City RTC Branch 256 under Judge Romeo Buenaventura.

In the second case, where De Lima’s co-accused is Ronnie Dayan, Aquiatan said the trial must proceed so the senator could rebut the testimonies of Rafael Ragos and Jun Ablen, who both claimed to have delivered drug money to the senator on two occasions in 2012.

De Lima’s lawyers appealed Aquiatan’s order, but the judge denied it on March 5.

The De Lima team had been insisting on inconsistencies in Ragos and Ablen’s testimonies, as well as a testimony from former Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) chief and now mayor Benjamin Magalong that the senator never turned up in their intelligence as being linked to the drug trade.

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4 years later, 2 NBI agents stand in the way of De Lima’s freedom

181 witnesses

The second case will proceed to the presentation of the defense, and De Lima has listed 181 possible witnesses, including former president Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III and other high-ranking government officials in the Aquino administration.

The list, seen by Rappler, also includes Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra, in his capacity as former official in Aquino’s Malacañang.

“[This is to] prove that the actions of the high-level inter-agency team were aboveboard, which all reported to PNoy,” said De Lima’s lawyer Rolly Peoro.

There were also several journalists on the witness list submitted by De Lima to the court.

“Journalists were included to testify on almost daily bashing of Senator De Lima by Mr. Duterte in 2016, declaring her guilty and a criminal even before any investigation by PNP (Philippine National Police), DOJ (Department of Justice), NBI (National Bureau of Investigation) started,” said Peoro.

As for the third case in Branch 256, the prosecution has presented murder convict Joel Capones, who testified that he saw the late inmate Jaybee Sebastian show the De Lima money inside Bilibid on March 4, 2014.

In a motion submitted to Branch 256 on March 8, De Lima’s lawyers asked the court not only to charge Capones with the same offenses, but also to initiate a probe into the other convicts he mentioned.

To not do so, De Lima’s lawyers said, “would be tantamount to selective justice which is another word for political persecution.”

“An army of prosecutors and legal support staff – not less than 13 public prosecutors, and those are the only ones on record – is prosecuting accused Leila de Lima, while at the same time refusing to prosecute all Bilibid inmates who already admitted and are now confessing one by one to have engaged in the illegal drug trading conspiracy subject of this case, like Capones,” said the pleading.

This case has been dragging on for 4 years, with many inhibitions or early retirements of judges in between.

De Lima’s case proceeded in the lower courts after the Supreme Court voted 9-6 in October 2017 to uphold the drug charges and keep her in detention. Retired justice Antonio Carpio, in his dissent, called it “one of the grossest injustices ever perpetrated in recent memory in full view of the Filipino nation and the entire world.” – Rappler.com