SENATOR Leila de Lima faced imminent arrest after the cases of trading in illegal drugs against here were raffled off to three different courts in Muntinlupa City on Monday.
Solicitor General Jose Calida supported the Justice Department’s move to indict De Lima before the Muntinlupa City regional trial courts over the drug charges, saying those courts had jurisdiction over cases involving violations of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act.
But De Lima on Monday urged the three courts to hold in abeyance the issuance of an arrest warrant against her as she sought to invalidate the charge sheet against her.
De Lima filed motions to quash, judicial determination of probable cause and hold in abeyance the issuance of a warrant of arrest.
She moved to quash the Information or charge sheet against her as she insisted that the courts had no jurisdiction over her but only the Office of the Ombudsman.
The cases against her had been assigned to Regional Trial Courts Branch 204, 205 and 206.
In the first complaint, De Lima’s co-accused are her former driver and lover Ronnie Dayan and National Bureau of Investigation deputy director Rafael Ragos.
Her co-accused in the second complaint is her nephew Jose Adrian Dera, and in the third complaint her co-accused include former Bureau of Corrections chief Franklin Bucayu, his alleged bagman Wilfredo Elli, high-profile inmate Jaybee Sebastian, De Lima’s former bodyguard Jonel Sanchez, Dayan and Dera.
Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II said the courts were expected to issue arrest warrants against De Lima and her co-accused once those courts found probable cause to have her arrested.
He said once the arrest warrants were out, prosecutors would seek the issuance of hold-departure orders against De Lima and her co-accused to prevent them from fleeing the country.
He disputed De Lima’s assertion that the cases against her should have been forwarded to the Office of the Ombudsman.
“It is the RTC that has original and exclusive jurisdiction over the three cases regardless of the high position of the respondent,” Aguirre said. “Trading in illegal drugs has no connection with the performance of her duties as [former] secretary of Justice,
The Justice Department on Friday filed criminal charges against De Lima before the Muntinlupa RTC in connection with her alleged involvement in the illegal drug trade in the New Bilibid Prison in four consolidated complaints filed by the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption, the National Bureau of Investigation, former NBI deputy directors Reynaldo Esmeralda and Ruel Lasala, and high-profile inmate Jaybee Sebastian.
De Lima did not show up during the hearing on the drug charges against her at the Justice Department and instead asked that all the cases against her be transferred to the Office of Ombudsman.
When the prosecutors rejected her motion, she sought relief from the Court of Appeals, which denied her plea for the issuance of a temporary restraining order.