Locsin schools Rubio on Leila

De Lima should undergo the usual trial in courts to see if the lawmaker is innocent of the alleged trumped-up charges.

The country’s top diplomat asked United States Sen. Marco Rubio to hold his horses amid his demand for the immediate release of detained Sen. Leila de Lima who is facing drug trafficking charges.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. educated Rubio on legal remedies applicable to the drug cases against De Lima.

On Sunday, Locsin reposted Rubio’s tweet which asked the Philippine government to immediately release the senator who was detained due to “bogus charges.”

“Philippine Sen. Leila de Lima, a critic of extrajudicial killings under (President Rodrigo) Duterte’s so-called ‘war on drugs,’ has spent the last two years in prison on bogus charges. I call on the Philippine government to unconditionally release her,” Rubio said in his tweet.

But Locsin, in a separate post, manifested that De Lima should undergo the usual trial in courts to see if the lawmaker is innocent of the alleged trumped-up charges.

“It would be best just to speed up her trial and deny all the motions to postpone until judgment. I’m sure acquitted… or not, she’ll have gone through a trial where the evidence will be seen to be good or bad and no matter the judgment, we’ll know if she’s innocent or not,” Locsin said in his post.

The Foreign Affairs Secretary argued that De Lima, a former Justice secretary, can file a demurrer to the evidence and ask the court to easily junk the pieces of evidence presented by the prosecution.

“(I’m) suspicious why it’s taking forever to get (the) trial started. One party or the other cannot either find a defense or make a case for the prosecution. In her case, I’d file a demurrer to the evidence because if there isn’t any, she goes free and she won’t owe it to the government,” Locsin said.

A demurrer to evidence is a motion filed by the defendant asking the court for the immediate dismissal of the case on the grounds of insufficiency of proof.

Locsin also asserted that it is unfair for the public and the justice system to leave her case hanging.

“Am I the only educated lawyer in the Philippines and the United States? For God’s sake, file now. So she can go home or back to jail once and for all. It’s unfair to keep her case hanging, unfair to the public, to her and to the justice system,” Locsin tweeted.

The opposition senator was allegedly receiving drug money from high-profile inmates in the New Bilibid Prison in exchange for their protection and continuation of their illegal trade.

De Lima has repeatedly denied the accusations linking her to drug activities inside the national prison.

During the recent Senate investigations on the controversies in the Bureau of Corrections, De Lima was linked again by former BuCor officer-in-charge Rafael Ragos and National Bureau of Investigation agent Jovencio Ablen Jr. in the drug trade that happens inside the national prison.

They reiterated their sworn statement claiming they delivered money from a high-profile inmate to De Lima during her time as Justice secretary.