Senator Leila de Lima. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/LYN RILLON
Senator Leila De Lima has asked the Court of Appeals anew to stop the Department of Justice (DOJ) from acting on the criminal case filed by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) against her.
READ: NBI files drug raps vs De Lima
In her petition for prohibition and certiorari, De Lima urged the appeals court to stop the proceedings at the DOJ and nullify the resolutions and issuances released by the panel of prosecutors.
She insisted that the Office of the Ombudsman, not the DOJ has the sole jurisdiction to handle the case filed against her.
The Senator said the DOJ panel of prosecutors committed grave abuse of discretion in proceeding with the preliminary investigation despite lack of jurisdiction.
The DOJ panel, she said, also committed grave abuse of discretion when it denied her right to respond to the complaint via a counter-affidavit and submitted the case for resolution.
The lawmaker added that the panel’s rulings are verbal and unrecorded.
“In view of the urgency of preserving the substantive rights of petitioner pending the prohibition and certiorari proceedings and in view of the propensity of the DOJ panel of prosecutors to continue violating such rights, it is prayed that a temporary restraining order be immediately issued and a writ of preliminary injunction be granted to restrain the panel of prosecutors from proceeding with and/or resolving its preliminary investigation,” De Lima’s petition stated.
De Lima basically put forward the same arguments she enumerated in an earlier petition before the CA also questioning the jurisdiction and authority of the prosecutors in conducting the preliminary investigation and resolving the cases filed by the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption, National Bureau of Investigation, former NBI deputy directors Ruel Lasala and Reynaldo Esmeralda and high-profile New Bilibid Prison inmate Jaybee Sebastian for her alleged involvement in the narcotics trade.
READ: CA asked to stop DOJ from acting on criminal raps vs De Lima
She stressed in her plea that the lack of a written order or transcripts of the hearing last January 7 appear to be intentional and designed to prevent her from complying with the requirements of Rule 65 on attaching a certified true copy of the questioned rulings.
She also stressed what she said was the personal hostility of President Rodrigo Duterte and his men, specifically Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II and Solicitor General Jose Calida, against her effectively prejudged her supposed involvement in the illegal drugs trade among others.
“There is already an institutional bias on the part of the DOJ, and the preliminary investigation has become heavily tainted with lack of impartiality and objectivity on the part of the respondent DOJ panel of prosecutors,’ she added.
The appeals court has yet to act on her first petition following the inhibition of three justices. IDL