Senator Leila De Lima on Thursday asked the Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court to deny the Department of Justice’s motion to amend the drug trafficking case against her, saying the latter was in effect filing a new case.
Through her lawyers who filed a 17-page opposition, De Lima said the DOJ, through the National Prosecution Service, was “not amending the charges but substituting a new case.”
De Lima and her nephew Jose Adrian Dera were charged in February 2017 for violating several sections of the Dangerous Drugs Act.
However, last month the DoJ filed an amended information sheet asking the Muntinlupa RTC to instead charge De Lima and Dera of conspiracy to sell and trade illegal drugs.
This was after Solicitor General Jose Calida, during oral arguments at the Supreme Court, said the senator should have been charged for violating Section 26 of Republic Act No. 9165, or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, instead of violating Section 5 of the same law.
The camp of De Lima countered that the crime of “conspiracy to trade drugs” is distinct and different from the offense of “drug trading.”
“The evidence sufficient to justify a conviction for ‘conspiracy to trade drugs’ cannot be enough to support a guilty verdict for ‘drug trading.’” the senator’s lawyers said.
In its amended information charge sheet, the justice department changed its accusation from trading drugs to conspiracy to trade illegal drugs.
In describing the nature of the charge, the DOJ added the phrase “did then and there decide and agree to commit illegal drug trading.”
The composition of the justice department panel who decided to sue the senator also changed.
In the amended complaint, the panel members increased with the addition of Senior Assistant City Prosecutors Ramoncito Bienvenido Ocampo Jr., Lea D. Llavore, Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Alexander Suarez, Assistant State Prosecutor Aristotle Reyes, Associate City Prosecutors Laurence Joel Taliping, Rudy Ricamora Jr. and Associate Prosecution Attorney II Wendell Bendoval.
Members of the prosecution panel in the original complaint included Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Peter Ong, Senior Assistant City Prosecutors Alexander Ramos, Leila R. Llanes, Evangeline Viudez-Canobas, and Assistant State Prosecutor Editha Fernandez.
De Lima’s camp said the DOJ failed to explain why they the composition of the investigating panel changed or why was the accusation amended. The Senator was not given the opportunity to respond, they added.