Justice Secretary De Lima to Abalos: Ready your defense

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima on Saturday advised former elections chief Benjamin Abalos to get ready to defend himself before the government fact-finding panel investigating fraud allegations in the 2004 and 2007 elections instead of maligning her and the witnesses who linked him to the irregularities.

“My unsolicited advice, therefore, to him is instead of his nonstop tirades, and even threatening mode, against me and the witnesses, he should by now be preparing for his defense before the joint DOJ-Comelec (Department of Justice-Commission on Elections) panel,” she said.

In a text message, De Lima assured Abalos that “he will be given his day in court, with full recognition of his rights.”

“I guess turning the tables on one’s accusers is an all too common reaction of someone who has been implicated, big time, in an anomaly. It’s not a common occurrence, and in fact, it’s a startling one, that a former highest official of our electoral body has been directly hit by testimonies as responsible for rigging poll results,” De Lima said.

De Lima was reacting to a threat by Abalos, former chair of Comelec, to file charges against her for “harboring fugitives” during an interview with ABS-CBN on Saturday.

Abalos was referring to South Cotabato and North Cotabato provincial election supervisors Lilia Radam and Yogie Martirizar, respectively, who had been charged with election sabotage after they failed to appear before the Comelec en banc sitting as the National Board of Canvassers to explain discrepancies in the election documents from their provinces during the 2007 midterm elections.

De Lima said it was neither criminal nor contemptuous if “the purpose of ‘harboring’ is to protect or have custody of the persons with warrants of arrest to be utilized by the prosecution branch as witnesses for the state.”