Presentation of evidence on de Lima’s obstruction case deferred

The presentation of evidence on the obstruction of justice case against Senator Leila De Lima has been deferred after her camp challenged the court’s admission of the opposition’s judicial affidavit of witness and Oriental Mindoro Representative Reynaldo V. Umali.

During Friday’s hearing, Atty. Teodoro Rigoroso, counsel for De Lima said Umali’s judicial affidavit, which was prepared and submitted by government, did not comply with the rules.

He said the original and the amended judicial affidavit of Umali bore the same date of May 17, 2017. Rigoroso added that a jurat and judicial affidavit were not properly attested.

A judicial affidavit is a written statement of a witness sworn under oath while a jurat is the clause at the end of the document, like an affidavit, stating the date, place, and name of the person before whom it was sworn. It also serves as proof of an oath taken before an administering officer.

“Only the signature page was not changed but the contents were altered,” Rigoroso pointed out.

“Second or corrected judicial affidavit was not properly attested. In the point [of view] of law, [it is] not truly a judicial affidavit,” Mr. Rigoroso argued. He added that if the judicial affidavit has been amended then it has to undergo the same procedure as the original affidavit.

The De Lima camp used the same tact of the Office of the Solicitor-General at the Supreme Court (SC). The OSG said De Lima’s petition is considered a mere scrap of paper due to the questionable execution of the jurat in her petition.

Quezon City Metropolitan Judge Ma. Ludmila D. Pio-Lim clarified with the prosecution if the witness executed a judicial affidavit, to which the prosecution answered in the affirmative.

“The judicial affidavit was changed – to add or delete certain matters. Were these changes effected on the same day (May 17, 2017)?”  Pio-Lim asked.

Pio-Lim gave the prosecution 10 days to submit their comment on the issue raised by De Lima’s camp.

The Court has reset the hearing for the prosecution’s admission of evidence on August 25 to pave way for De Lima’s motion for reconsideration.

The case stemmed from De Lima’s alleged advice to her former aide Ronnie P. Dayan to skip the House of Representatives’ Justice Committee’s hearing on the proliferation of drug trade inside the national penitentiary.

De Lima is currently detained in the police headquarters in Camp Crame, Quezon City for the drug trading charges.