Detained Sen. Leila de Lima was arraigned for her second drug charge in a Muntinlupa court on Friday, just two weeks after her first arraignment concluded an 18-month-long legal skirmish to amend the charges against her.
De Lima refused anew to enter a plea before Judge Amelia Fabros-Corpuz of the Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court Branch 205 on the charge of conspiracy to commit drug trading.
‘Pure fabrication’
“This charge is pure invention, pure fabrication. It’s a sham case. There’s nothing to plea to. Therefore, I refuse to enter a plea,” she told the judge.
As per rules of court, Corpuz entered a not guilty plea on behalf of De Lima, who is detained at Camp Crame.
“I see that the amended information is a duplicitous charge, a flagrant violation against me, of my constitutional right to be duly informed of the nature of accusations. How can I be charged under a single information with two distinct offenses?” De Lima added.
Her counsel, Filibon Tacardon, said the judge dismissed their motion for reconsideration to amend the charges against the senator after the arraignment was reset several times. —DEXTER CABALZA