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BY PRINCE GOLEZ and ADRIAN STEWART CO
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Monday, June 26, 2017
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MANILA – Sen. Leila de Lima is contesting the second warrant of arrest a regional trial court (RTC) judge in Muntinlupa City issued for her alleged involvement in the illegal drug trade at the New Bilibid Prisons.
Her lawyer, Alex Padilla, described the latest case filed by the Department of Justice as the “weakest [among] the three cases filed against Senator [de Lima].”
Padilla said they will file a motion for reconsideration. “We will be asking the court to recall the said arrest warrant.”
Judge Amelia Fabris-Corpuz issued warrants of arrest against de Lima and Jose Adrian Dera, also known as “Jad De Vera,” on June 21 in light of the drug offense charge the Justice department filed against them.
The Justice department accused de Lima of ordering Dera, her “aide” and “nephew,” to extort money and vehicles from high-profile Bilibid inmate Peter Co to be used in her senatorial campaign.
Dera “demanded, solicited and extorted” money and vehicles from Co, a drug lord, said the Justice department.
Judge Juanita Guerrero, also of the Muntinlupa RTC, previously issued the warrant of arrest that led to the opposition senator’s detention at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center in Camp Crame.
“Dera already denied knowing Senator [de Lima],” Padilla said. “There’s clearly no trail of the supposed vehicles and the alleged campaign donation that would have any link to Senator [de Lima].”
De Lima, a former Justice secretary and Commission on Human Rights head, also denied being related to Dera.
“My accusers say that … Dera … is a nephew and an aide of mine. I do not know him at all,” she said in a statement. “Dera himself already denied any relationship or connection to me whatsoever.”
The beleaguered senator believes the “truth will still come out in the end.”
“In the process of the prosecution of my cases, I am optimistic that the handling judges will more and more realize the unreliability of the witnesses against me, as well as the incredibility of their stories,” she said. “In the end, all of these so-called witnesses will be proven to have been lying all along or have simply been threatened to falsely testify against me.”
“In the meantime, I will continue to exhaust legal remedies to fight my illegal arrest and detention,” she added./PN
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