(Eagle News) — A Supreme Court associate justice said Senator Leila de Lima’s lawyers going to the High Court to question the legality of her arrest was premature.
During oral arguments on Tuesday, Associate Justice Presbitero Velasco Jr. said that De Lima’s camp “was bypassing the (Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court)” where they had filed a motion to quash, after she filed the petition contesting her February arrest before the SC.
“Precisely, you are banking on the resolution of the RTC Muntinlupa to resolve first the motion to quash. This is too premature in my reading because that is exactly what you’re asking us to do,” he said.
Associate Justice Diosdado Peralta added that the senator’s camp could have committed forum shopping because “the same petitions” were filed before “two different courts.”
But former solicitor general Florin Hilbay, De Lima’s lawyer, disagreed, insisting that securing his client’s release from police custody was a “very good reason” for filing the petition before the High Court.
He added that the proper venue for the trial of his client was the Sandiganbayan, and not the RTC.
He said the conduct of the preliminary investigation was within the purview of the Ombudsman.
No inhibition
Meanwhile, Associate Justice Francis Jardeleza rejected calls by groups such as the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption, and the Republic Defenders, for him to inhibit from the case involving the petition filed by De Lima’s camp.
The groups had sought his inhibition on the grounds that he had a close relationship with the senator, which meant that there could be a negative perception about how he would vote on the case.
They said Jardeleza and De Lima worked together at the Jardeleza Sobrevinas Hayudini and Bodegon Law Office in 1987, and at the Roco, Bunag Kapunan Migallos and Jardeleza law firm years later.
De Lima, who is detained at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center, is facing drug cases at Branches 204, 205 and 206 of the Muntinlupa RTC.
The cases stem from her alleged involvement in the illegal drug trading in the New Bilibid Prison when she was justice secretary.
She is also facing a case for supposed disobedience to summons at the Quezon City Metropolitan Court.
She refused to enter a plea during her arraignment at the QC MTC this week. With a report from Erwin Temperante
