De Lima hits SolGen, denies fabricating pleading

Sen. Leila De Lima (left) said the claim of Solicitor General Jose Calida (right) that she falsified a document in her pleading before the Supreme Court was a desperate move. MARIANNE BERMUDEZ/INQUIRER FILE

Senator Leila de Lima on Tuesday denied fabricating a document in one of her pleadings at the Supreme Court, saying the Office of the Solicitor General’s (OSG) allegation was just “borne out of desperation.”

De Lima said the OSG’s claim was false and had no “factual basis.”

“The OSG attack is obviously borne out of desperation,” the senator said in a statement issued by her office.

In a manifestation before the Supreme Court, Solicitor General Jose Calida said De Lima fabricated her “jurat” by stating that she personally appeared before a notary public. Under the Rules on Notarial Practice, a jurat is an act in which an individual appears in person before the notary public and presents an instrument or document.

Calida noted that De Lima’s petition was signed on February 24 or the day she was arrested and detained at the PNP Custodial Center. He said the detentions center’s logbook did not indicate that she was visited by the notary public.

READ: Solgen eyes filing case vs De Lima for breaking notarial rules

But De Lima insisted the notary public met with her. And contrary to the OSG’s claim, the notary public was at the detention center when she was brought there.

“The OSG, by repeatedly attempting to resort to the basest of technicalities, and in lieu of substantial arguments against the merits of her Supreme Court petition, is scraping the bottom of the barrel for whatever argument is left to support her continued illegal detention,” the senator said. CBB/rga