De Lima orders 2 prosecutors who sat on black-corral smuggling case to explain

MANILA, Philippines—Justice Secretary Leila De Lima has ordered two Zamboanga City prosecutors to explain why they sat on a case that involved two alleged smugglers of black corals.

De Lima on Monday said she had ordered provincial prosecutors Gladdy Bernabe and Alfredo Jimenez Jr. to explain why they should not be administratively charged for sitting on the smuggling case for four years.

The complaint against Joe Pring, alias Li Yu Ming, and his wife, Olivia Li, proprietors of Li and Lim Trading, was filed in 2007 yet but it was only recently that the DoJ filed a criminal case against the two suspects.

Early this year, De Lima ordered an inventory of cases and the resolution of cases that had been sitting at the DoJ for years within 60 days. Some of the cases of which she had ordered an inventory include tax and carnapping cases. Prosecutors who fail to comply face sanctions.

“I want to know what happened to the cases, why it took them so long to resolve them,” De Lima explained.