Judge handling De Lima’s remaining drug case inhibits

The judge handling the remaining drug charges against former Senator Leila de Lima has inhibited himself from further hearing the case following concerns raised by some of the accused.

Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court Branch 256 Judge Romeo Buenaventura made the decision after he was accused of having connections to a party.

"Simply put, the suspicion of the accused-movants, while unfounded if not contrived, cannot be ignored since it already tarnished the integrity and impartiality of the Court as well as the needed trust and confidence in all subsequent proceedings in the instant case," Buenaventura said in an order dated June 15.

"For this reason, the undersigned Presiding Judge will exercise his discretion and will recuse himself from further hearing this case, not because the allegations are true but because it is his avowed duty as a member of the Bench to promote confidence in the judicial system," he added.

Due to this, the records of the case will then be transmitted to the Executive Judge for re-raffle to other branches of the court for the continuation of the case.

Buenventura was supposed to hold hearings on June 19 and 26 after denying De Lima's petition for bail on June 7. 

In their motions, Ronnie Dayan, De Lima’s former driver and bodyguard, Joenel Sanchez, and Franklin Bucayu said they saw reports that Buenaventura is the brother of Atty. Emmanuel Buenaventura, who worked as a lawyer for Reynaldo Umali.

Umali was previously the chairman of the House justice committee, which held an inquiry in 2016 into De Lima's alleged involvement in the illegal drug trade in the New Bilibid Prison in exchange for election campaign funds.

However, the judge said that just because Emmanuel Buenaventura is his sibling, it is not sufficient to prove that he acted with malice, bad faith, or partiality.

The judge also said that his brother's role as former counsel to Dayan as well as the legal adviser to Umali was beyond his personal knowledge.

Buenaventura said he was also unaware of the recantation made by Dayan, where he testified that he was coerced by Umali to execute a sworn affidavit.

"At this juncture, the Presiding Judge maintains that, as dispenser of justice, he has conducted himself with the cold impartiality of an impartial judge, and no one has swayed his judgment and conduct in adjudicating the instant case," he said.

"He is confident that were it not for the instant motions for his inhibition, he would have handled this case until its finality with the utmost probity and objectivity, which he has been upholding the entire time," he added. 

De Lima’s camp, meanwhile, welcomed Buenaventura’s inhibition and expressed hope that the case will be raffled to a new judge at the soonest possible time.

They also hoped that the Supreme Court would maintain its instruction to the new judge to finish the case within nine months.

“If possible, we are hoping that the SC can take a more proactive role and immediately designate a judge to continue handling this case,” her camp said in a statement.

Her camp called on the new judge to look into De Lima’s motion asking the court to reconsider its denial of her bail application.

“Nadedelay man po, nananalig at naniniwala po si Sen. De Lima na makakamit niya ang katarungan dahil noon pa man, nasa panig na niya ang katotohanan,” her camp said.

(Even though there is a delay, Sen. De Lima hopes and believes that she will obtain justice because the truth has always been on her side.)

De Lima had earlier today submitted a motion for inhibition against Buenaventura, but it was not taken up.

When sought for comment, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said the inhibition was unfortunate.

“Because the person who hears the case should probably be the one to decide the case. But if they will inhibit at this stage, they have to accept that,” he said.—VBL, GMA Integrated News