Muntinlupa court resets De Lima arraignment

The Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court Branch 205 has rescheduled anew the arraignment of Senator Leila De Lima on charges of violating the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act.

De Lima’s arraignment has been rescheduled several times since June last year.

From June, the arraignment was moved to Sept. 25, 2017 then to Oct. 13, 2017. It was moved again to Nov. 24, and then to March 16 and on Friday, the court again moved the arraignment to May 18.

The arraignment was reset in order to resolve first the senator’s Omnibus Motion to reverse the court’s Feb. 21, 2018 order granting the prosecution’s motion to admit the amended information from the original charge of drug trading to conspiracy to trade drugs.

An arraignment is needed for the court to have jurisdiction over the accused. Once the accused has been arraigned, the court can now proceed to a pre-trial conference for the marking of evidence and eventually the trial proper.  /muf