Former Senator Leila de Lima (file photo)
MANILA, Philippines — Detained former senator Leila de Lima’s final drug case has been re-raffled to another Muntinlupa City Regional Trial Court (RTC) branch with the trial set to resume on July 7.
Based on a court order signed by Muntinlupa City RTC Branch 204 Presiding Judge Abraham Joseph Alcantara, and made public on Friday, the said court will now handle the case upon the motion of her co-accused Ronnie Dayan, Joenel Sanchez and Franklin Bucayu.
It can be recalled that the said motion resulted in the inhibition of Muntinlupa City RTC Branch 256 Presiding Judge Romeo Buenaventura.
“The case was eventually re-raffled and assigned to this Court on 26 June 2023,” Muntinlupa RTC Branch 204’s court order read.
Alcantara was the same judge who acquitted de Lima and her former driver-bodyguard Dayan in one of the three drug cases filed against her.
The former senator has been detained since February 24, 2017, within months of her launching a Senate inquiry into then President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody war on drugs.
So far, she has been acquitted in two of three drug-related complaints against her.