VACC reiterates call for De Lima disbarment

Senator Leila De Lima. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/MARIANNE BERMUDEZ

The Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) on Monday renewed its call to disbar Senator Leila de Lima.

VACC has submitted a supplemental complaint before the Supreme Court’s Office of the Bar Confidant (OBC) stating the recent admissions made by De Lima and her former driver and lover Ronnie Dayan.

De Lima, in a television interview citing the “frailties of a woman,” admitted her romantic relationship with Dayan.

READ: De Lima finally admits romance with Dayan

Dayan, on the other hand, admitted during a congressional hearing his affair with De Lima.

VACC said there is enough evidence to prove gross immorality on the part of the senator that should warrant the cancellation of her license as a lawyer.

“The admission of Senator De Lima about her illicit and scandalous relationship in public is definitely not a frailty of a woman who is a member of the Bar,” the VACC said.

“Her public admission warrants her immediate suspension from the legal profession until this disbarment case is resolved,” the group said as it noted that the senator had the affair even while Dayan remained legally married to his wife.

Joining VACC were former National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Deputy Directors Ruel Lasala and Reynaldo Esmeralda.

READ: Ex-NBI officials, VACC call for De Lima disbarment

In the same supplemental complaint, VACC and the former NBI officials also cited De Lima’s message to Dayan’s daughter telling her former driver to hide.

“Senator De Lima’s act of blatantly urging Dayan to snub the committee hearings, and instead hide in the meantime suggests her disregard of the rule of law. What she initiated was obstruction of justice not to mention that it was a disrespect of a co-equal institution,” VACC chairman Dante Jimenez told reporters in an interview.

“She was making a mockery of our justice system which is ironic considering her previous post as justice secretary,” he added.

They also urged the Senate to conduct its own investigation on De Lima’s alleged attempt to obstruct justice during the congressional inquiry.

Aside from her relationship with Dayan, subject of the disbarment complaint was her alleged link to the illegal drug trade inside the New Bilibid Prison (NBP).

De Lima has three other disbarment cases pending. All the other cases were filed in 2012.

Private lawyer Agustin Sundiam asked the high court to take disciplinary action against De Lima and former presidential spokesperson Atty. Edwin Lacierda for their utterances and remarks on national television where they called the late Chief Justice Renato Corona a “lawless tyrant.”

Sundiam said the two secretaries violated their oath as lawyers requiring them to “observe and maintain the respect and dignity due to the courts of justice and judicial offers.”

The other complaints against De Lima were filed separately by Atty. Ricardo Rivera and Fernando Perito, Nephtali Aliposa, both about De Lima’s alleged defiance in following a Supreme Court temporary restraining order issued November 2011 when she stopped former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her husband Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo  from leaving the country to seek medical treatment abroad. RAM/rga

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