Calida: Try De Lima for drugs

Senator Leila De Lima.  INQUIRER PHOTO / GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE

Detained Sen. Leila de Lima, President Duterte’s political arch-nemesis, should stand trial for her alleged involvement in the narcotics trade when she was still the justice secretary, Solicitor General Jose Calida said on Sunday.

In a statement, the primary state counsel opposed De Lima’s claim that the case against her should have been handled by prosecutors from the Office of the Ombudsman and not from the Department of Justice as her alleged criminal acts were committed as a public official.

She also insisted that the antigraft court Sandiganbayan and not the Muntinlupa City Regional Trial Court (RTC) should try the case against her for violation of Republic Act No. 9165, more known as the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.

Calida, the self-ascribed “16th justice” of the Supreme Court, said the 15-member tribunal should not grant the senator’s petition for certiorari and temporary restraining order because she was “not entitled” to such judicial intervention.

De Lima, who is being held at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center in Camp Crame since her arrest on Feb. 24, had sought the legal remedy to bar Executive Judge Juanita Guerrero of Muntinlupa RTC Branch 204 from hearing her case.

In opposing De Lima’s petition, the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) argued that the high court would be virtually ruling on the criminal case against the senator if it would grant her petition.

“A full-blown trial is necessary to determine De Lima’s guilt for the drug charges against her,” the OSG said.

In seeking the high court’s intercession, De Lima’s defense lawyers said her petition was “not just for the vindication of her rights as an individual and as an accused, but also to prevent an even more far-reaching offense against our nation from being committed.”

“By showing that even a senator … cannot save herself from the vindictiveness of a tyrant, that she cannot hope to voice her dissent … we are allowing a culture of impunity, corruption and depravity to once again descend upon our nation,” read a portion of De Lima’s 82-page petition.

Meanwhile, Associate Justices Samuel Martires and Noel Tijam, Mr. Duterte’s first two appointees to the high court, were expected to participate in the oral arguments on De Lima’s petition on Tuesday.

Interestingly, Martires was once ordered investigated by De Lima, then the justice secretary, along with then Sandiganbayan Presiding Justice Edilberto Sandoval and Associate Justice Teresita Baldos after they approved the controversial plea bargain of ex-military comptroller Carlos Garcia in 2011.