Opposition Senator Leila de Lima and her legal counsel, Boni Tacardon, have asked the Muntinlupa City Regional Trial Court Branch 205 to dismiss the contempt case filed against them by the prosecution in relation to one of the drug cases she is facing.
In their comments filed separately on March 1, De Lima and Tacardon said the court should “outrightly dismiss their [prosecution] petition” because their statements did not constitute any clear and present danger or imminent threat to the administration of justice.
“In the words of the prosecution themselves, what they only fear is that the said ‘statements’ will ‘persuade, influence, intimidate, incite perception and sentiments of their colleagues and other government officials, including the trial court judges,’” Tacardon said.
The statements being questioned by the prosecutor involved the testimonies of a financial investigator from the Anti-Money Laundering Council and a digital forensic examiner from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency who both reaffirmed under oath that De Lima was not involved in any suspicious transaction that would link her to the illegal drug trade inside the New Bilibid Prison.
De Lima said her lawyers’ out-of-court statements are an essential exercise of her constitutional right to a public trial considering the severe restrictions on access to her hearings due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Per the standards laid down in jurisprudence, the out-of-court statements of respondents consisting of a fair and accurate report of the proceedings in herein respondent’s public trial in a criminal case are allowed, not only by virtue of the guarantee of free expression and free publication, but more importantly, by virtue herein respondent’s constitutionally guaranteed right to a public trial, which not even the courts can deprive her of,” De Lima said in her comment.
“The sub judice rule puts limits on what may be considered as fair reporting of an ongoing court case of public interest. It is not intended to gag public interest or public comment on a public trial, more specifically a criminal trial or a case involving public interest. These kinds of court proceedings are a public event, and what occurs in the courtroom is public property,” she added.