Senator Leila de Lima welcomed the filing of drug charges against her but said these should have been filed before the Office of the Ombudsman and not at the office of Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II, whom she described as the “master of fakery.”
“This is most welcome. Instead of stoning me in a House inquiry, they should start filing cases in the proper venue,” De Lima said in a text message, reacting to the case filed against her and several others by the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC).
READ: De Lima, Sebastian, 4 others face drug raps
The House of Representatives has wrapped up its investigation into the alleged proliferation of illegal drugs at the New Bilibid Prison when De Lima was justice secretary.
NBP gang bosses, including the supposed asset of De Lima Jaybee Sebastian, told the inquiry that De Lima received millions of pesos from illegal drugs to fund her run for the Senate. The senator has repeatedly denied the allegation.
De Lima said the cases should have been filed before the Ombudsman and not at the Department of Justice (DOJ) since the acts that she allegedly committed were done when she was head of the department.
“Although the DOJ may initially take cognizance, this case against me would eventually only be filed by the DOJ with the Ombudsman for another round of fact-finding investigation,” she said.
“In the meantime, the complainants would have wasted time by filing it with the DOJ. In the interest of the speedy administration of justice, they should have directly filed this complaint with the Ombudsman, not the DOJ.”
“Unless they have other reasons for filing it with the DOJ instead of the Ombudsman. Maybe because that is the domain of Aguirre, the master of fakery. Justice under Aguirre is fake,” the senator said.
De Lima challenged those who want to file charges against her to lodge it directly with the Ombudsman, which she said, had jurisdiction over such cases. CBB/rga