De Lima defends handling of Ortega slay case after CA rebuff

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima. FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines —Don’t be scared of me, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima told the Court of Appeals (CA) on Wednesday, after the court invalidated the second panel she created to re-investigate the murder of environmentalist and radio personality, Dr. Gerry Ortega, in Palawan in 2011, after the court find her action “scary.”

“They need not be scared of this Secretary of Justice,” De Lima said.  The justice secretary was reacting to the ruling of the CA Special Fifth Division, which said the justice secretary committed grave abuse of discretion when she formed a second panel to look into the Ortega murder case instead of carrying out her duty to review the resolution of the first panel she had created, finding no probable cause to indict former Palawan Gov. Joel Reyes and his brother, former Coron Mayor Mario Reyes.

The Reyes brothers are currently in hiding and it was Mario Reyes who petitioned the appellate court questioning De Lima’s creation of a second panel.

Speaking to reporters, De Lima recalled that she was once accused of favoring Reyes and his brother because the ex-governor used to be her client.

“The fact that Gov. Reyes used to be a client has nothing to do with all of these actions,” De Lima, an election lawyer by profession, told reporters.

She said she had been criticized for initially inhibiting herself in the Ortega case but when she finally got involved, she was again criticized.

“So saan ako pupuesto (So, where is my place)?” she told reporters.

This as De Lima wondered why the CA seemed to be restricting her actions such as her issuance of a hold departure order last year against former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, when other secretaries of justice had done the same in the past without any restriction.

She said secretaries of justice would exercise their plenary authority on certain cases if they felt “there would be a miscarriage of justice.”

“And that is exactly my justification for the creation of the second panel (in the Ortega murder case),” De Lima said.

She said she has instructed the Solicitor General to prepare a motion for reconsideration of the CA ruling.

Meanwhile, the daughter of Ortega, Mika, told reporters that the family was “not ready for interviews” on the CA ruling and asked the family lawyer Alex Avisado, to speak on their behalf.  He said the CA decision “did not dismiss” the murder case and did not recall the warrant of arrest against the Reyes brothers.

“It simply resolved the issue of technicality: that DOJ Sec. Leila De Lima should have resolved the pending petition for review instead of creating a second panel of prosecutors. The CA Decision did not make a ruling on the guilt or innocence of the accused Reyes brothers. In fact, it even stated that the disposition of the murder case should be left to the sound discretion of the trial court judge. So the warrants of arrest are still in effect and the reward of 2 Million Pesos each for their capture is still in place,” Avisado said in a statement.

He said they would file a motion for reconsideration on the issue of technicality “which we expect could reach the Supreme Court.”

“The Ortega family is still hopeful that in the end, justice will be served and that the masterminds would be punished and sent to jail for the murder of Doc Gerry Ortega,” Avisado said.

And responding to Ortega’s lawyer Ferdinand Topacio, Avisado said the CA decision was different from the case of Sen. Panfilo Lacson, whose arrest warrant was squashed when the double murder case involving former publicist Salvador Dacer and his driver, filed against him was dismissed.

“In the Lacson case, the CA granted the petition, dismissed the information and recalled the Warrant of Arrest. No dismissal or recall of the warrant of arrest happened in the case of Governor Reyes. I know this because I was the counsel and legal spokesman of Sen. Panfilo Lacson at that time,” Avisado added.