Images by. www.concepnewscentral.com The ordeal of detained Sen. Leila de Lima as a result of the drug trafficking charges against her continued as the Muntinpula Regional Trial Court (RTC) denied her motion yesterday to quash the complaint on her alleged involvement in the New Bilibid Prison drug trade.
Muntinlupa RTC Branch 206 Judge Lorna Navarro Domingo denied De Lima’s motion to quash the amended charge of conspiracy to commit drug trading (Sec. 26 of RA 9165) due to “technicalities,” De Lima counsel Boni Tacardon said.
“The denial was more on the technicality, so we filed a motion for reconsideration to encourage the judge to review the case of Senator De Lima for her to appreciate the arguments we raised,” Tacardon said. With De Lima’s camp filing an appeal to have the charges against her junked, her arraignment has been delayed for the sixth time since being imprisoned over a year ago.
Previous arraignments were also delayed due to motions made by De Lima’s camp.
“This is only a dilatory tactic on the part of the accused,” Special Assistant City Prosecutor Ramoncito Ocampo said.
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Ocampo added De Lima’s co-accused were already willing to be arraigned, but her camp’s motions also delayed their arraignments.
Tacardon said this would not have happened if the prosecution did not amend the charge against De Lima back in December 2017.
“The problem did not come from our camp. It also came from the prosecution which changed the offense charged. It used to be illegal drug trading which was conspiracy to commit illegal drug trading. Umaalma kami doon,” Tacardon said.
“We’re just trying to protect Senator De Lima from being tried under an information na hindi namin naiintindihan at hindi niya rin naiintindihan,” he said.
This came after De Lima’s lawyer filed a 12-page Motion for Reconsideration (MR) insisting the prosecution “still miserably failed to provide factual allegations” to support its charge she conspired to trade illegal drugs.
As a result, the court granted the prosecution five days to study and answer a new defense motion.
The new arraignment is scheduled on July 27.
