(FILE) Former senator De Lima.
MANILA, Philippines — Acting on her urgent motion, courts where former senator Leila de Lima has pending cases have allowed her to receive visitors from the United States Congress.
In separate orders released to the public on Friday, the Regional Trial Court Branch 204 and Branch 256 of Muntinlupa City granted the motion from De Lima’s camp to let lawmakers from the United States, led by Senator Edward John Markey, visit her detention facility.
De Lima is still detained at the Philippine National Police (PNP) Custodial Center inside Camp Crame over drug-related charges. De Lima earlier said the accusations are baseless given the recantation of the prosecution’s witnesses and the dismissal of the other charges against her.
Initially, the U.S. lawmakers were not allowed by the PNP to visit the detained former senator due to a lack of authority from the courts.
“Wherefore, in view of the foregoing, the Extremely Urgent Motion Ex Abundanti Ad Cautelam is granted, subject to the visitation guidelines under PNP Memorandum Circular No. 2018-027, without prejudice to the liability of those visitors for any infraction punishable by law,” Branch 204 Presiding Judge Abraham Joseph Alcantara said in the order.
“Accordingly, the PNP Headquarters Custodial Facility, Camp Crame, is directed to ALLOW the persons mentioned in Annex ‘2’ of the instant motion to visit accused De Lima today, (1)9 August 2022, at 9:00 in the morning to 12:00 o’clock noon,” Branch 256 Presiding Judge Romeo Buenaventura said in his own order.
READ: PNP bars U.S. legislators’ visit to De Lima due to lack of authority from court
READ: No De Lima visit, but U.S. lawmakers got to see Marcos
However, both courts stressed that the U.S. Congressional delegation must observe the safety and health protocols being enforced at the PNP Custodial Center to avoid the spread of COVID-19 and that no media or any form of social media coverage would be allowed.
Photos and videos sent in by contributors showed who is believed to be Senator Markey, wearing a mask, entering and exiting the PNP Custodial Center. Other delegation members were also escorted inside the detention facility by PNP officials.
The U.S. Congressional delegation is in the country for a series of talks with key officials, including President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., and House Speaker Martin Romualdez.
In a statement earlier, Romualdez said that aside from Senator Edward John Markey (Democrat-Massachusetts), the four other U.S. lawmakers who were present were Rep. Alan Lowenthal (Democrat-California), Rep. John Garamendi (Democrat, California), Rep. Donald Sternoff Beyer, Jr. (Democrat, Virginia), and Rep. Aumua Amata Radewagen (Republican, American Samoa)
In the order, De Lima’s camp was also reminded to “be more circumspect in filing urgent motions” as the motion was supposedly filed late afternoon Thursday. However, De Lima said the visit of the U.S. lawmakers was already pre-arranged, saying that they wrote a letter addressed to PNP chief Gen. Rodolfo Azurin as early as August 10.