DOJ, OSG in conflict over De Lima? What conflict?

Solicitor General Jose Calida (Photo by GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE / INQUIRER FILE PHOTO)

What conflict?

Two top officials of the Duterte administration’s legal team have denied the claim of detained Sen. Leila de Lima’s camp that the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) were not seeing eye to eye.

Solicitor General Jose Calida dismissed as just “figment of their imagination” the argument of his predecessor, former Solicitor General Florin Hilbay, that the OSG’s interpretation of the drug case against De Lima differed with the actual complaint filed by the DOJ prosecutors against her.

Calida briefly spoke with Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II before the Supreme Court resumed the oral arguments on the petition filed by De Lima questioning the legality of her arrest on Tuesday.

“There’s no conflict in the position of the OSG and the DOJ in the case (against De Lima),” Calida told reporters.

De Lima, who has been calling out President Duterte over the unbridled drug killings in the country since he took office last year, has been detained at Camp Crame after a Muntinlupa City regional trial court judge ordered her arrest on Feb. 24.

Making use of the testimonies of convicted criminals, a DOJ panel headed by Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Peter Ong, Mr. Duterte’s brod in Lex Talionis fraternity, had indicted the senator for her alleged role in the illegal drug trade inside the state prison when she was still the justice secretary.

According to Aguirre, the DOJ could have submitted an amended complaint against De Lima if there was really a disagreement among the government lawyers.

“If there’s conflict in the information filed by the panel of prosecutors and the OSG’s interpretation, there should have been an amendment. But we did not amend the information since there is no conflict,” he stressed.

Arguing De Lima’s petition before the 15-member tribunal, Hilbay said the OSG noted in a comment it filed in the high court that De Lima should have been indicted for conspiracy to sell illegal drugs and not for the actual trading of narcotics as recommended by Ong’s panel.

He said the different opinions of the DOJ and the OSG “palpably indicates that the government doesn’t really have a case” against the senator.

“The stunning discrepancy in the understanding of the DOJ and OSG violates (De Lima’s) constitutional right to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation against her,” Hilbay said.

RELATED VIDEO