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By Adrian Stewart Co
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Thursday, December 22, 2016
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MANILA – The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Wednesday filed an obstruction of justice case against Sen. Leila De Lima in relation to the illegal drug trade at the New Bilibid Prisons (NBP) in Muntinlupa City.
Filed before the Quezon City Metropolitan Trial Court, de Lima was charged with obstruction of justice for allegedly disallowing her driver and “bagman” Ronnie Dayan from attending the House of Representatives inquiry.
The case stems from the complaint filed by House of Representatives speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, majority leader Rodolfo Fariñas and Justice Committee chair Reynaldo Umali at the DOJ earlier this month.
According to DOJ officer-in-charge prosecutor general Jorge Catalan Jr., de Lima is not expected to be issued a warrant of arrest or asked to post bail since the case against her is just “light offense.”
“We did not conduct any preliminary investigation because under the Rules on Summary Procedure, if the imposable penalty is less than six months, we can file it directly in court,” Catalan said.
“In fact, there are cases in which the imposable penalty is four years, two months and one day that the investigation prosecutor need not conduct any preliminary investigation,” he added.
Catalan added that, according to assistant state prosecutor Vilma Lopez-Sarmiento, there is probable cause to file obstruction charges against the former DOJ secretary and now senator de Lima.
Dayan said in his testimony that he was willing to attend the House inquiry when he was first invited last October but de Lima, in a text message to Dayan’s daughter, had advised him not to attend.
De Lima admitted texting Dayan but saying that she was just giving advice and not an order to shun the subpoena from the House Justice Committee of representative Umali.
Dayan was arrested on Nov. 22 at La Union following a warrant of arrest against him from the House for his non-attendance of the inquiry on the proliferation of the illegal drug trade inside the NBP.
Aside from the said case, there are still pending drug trafficking charges against de Lima, Dayan and several other individuals before the DOJ still in relation to the illegal drug trade at NBP./PN
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