Guevarra: Cases against De Lima ‘in accordance with the law’

Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra yesterday said the handling of the drug cases against former senator Leila de Lima during his term as justice secretary was in accordance with the law.

The statement of Guevarra was in response to De Lima's call for the Office of the Ombudsman to start its investigation into whether he and former DOJ chief Vitaliano Aguirre II had administrative liability over the use of convicted felons to testify against her in the illegal drug charges. 

The call of De Lima came after the Court of Appeals recently issued a decision which reversed and set aside the Ombudsman's decision dismissing her complaint against the two in relation to the government's use of convicts to testify against her in the drug cases. 

The former lawmaker said her two predecessors violated Section 10 of Republic Act 6981, or the Witness Protection, Security and Benefit Act, when they used felons as witnesses against her.

 Under the said law, individuals convicted of any crime involving moral turpitude cannot be admitted to the government's Witness Protection Program and be made as prosecution witnesses. 

"I understand that the CA merely remanded the case to the Office of the Ombudsman. So, let's wait for what the Office of the Ombudsman will do," Guevarra said. 

"In any event, I am ready to submit my comment of required. As Justice Secretary, all my acts had always been in accordance with the law," he added. 

Guevarra served as DOJ chief from 2018 to 2022 under the administration of then president Rodrigo Duterte. 

Meanwhile, Aguirre said he would just wait for the Ombudsman's action on the CA ruling.

"I have not been furnished a copy of her complaint since its filing. This is the first time I have been informed of such. I will just await the order from the Ombudsman to answer or comment on the said complaint," Aguirre, now one of the commissioners of the National Police Commission, said.

Aside from granting De Lima's petition to reverse the Ombudsman's decision in her case against Aguirre and Guevarra, it also ordered the Ombudsman to act on De Lima's complaints. 

The testimonies of high-profile inmates at the New Bilibid Prisons  led to the filing of  three drug cases against De Lima before the Muntinlupa City Regional Trial Court in 2017.

Arrest warrants were issued against De Lima  that led to her incarceration for more than six years.

The Muntinlupa  RTC  has junked  two of the three drug charges against the former senator.

On 13 November, Muntinlupa RTC Branch 206 presiding Judge Gener Gito allowed De Lima to post bail in her remaining drug case.