Muntinlupa judge grants DOJ motion to inhibit from De Lima case

The remaining drug case of former Senator Leila de Lima will be raffled off for the second time after another Muntinlupa court judge inhibited.

In a 4-page order, Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court Branch 204 Judge Abraham Joseph Alcantara granted the motion filed by prosecutors and voluntarily inhibited from the case.

“With the foregoing, the undersigned Presiding Judge will exercise prudent discretion and voluntarily desist from hearing the case not because the prosecution's assertion is true but to put to rest any questions against his credibility, integrity, and fairness,” it read.

Alcantara said that a judge has no alternative but to inhibit himself at the first sign of lack of faith, whether well-grounded or not.

He ordered the records of the case to be transmitted to the Office of the Clerk of Court for re-raffle as soon as practicable.

In a message to reporters, Filibon Tacardon, De Lima’s legal counsel, said they have received Alcantara’s inhibition.

“We just received order of Judge Alcantara where he inhibited himself from this last case. Hearing tomorrow is already canceled,” he said.

Earlier, the prosecution moved for Alcantara’s inhibition “to ensure a just and fair administration of justice,” noting that he had acquitted De Lima in another case.

The case was just recently raffled to Alcantara after Branch 256 Judge Romeo Buenaventura quit the trial on June 15 on allegations that he failed to disclose that his brother had served as a lawyer for the late Oriental Mindoro lawmaker Reynaldo Umali.

De Lima has repeatedly denied the charges against her, which she claimed were fabricated by the Duterte administration.

She has been detained at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center in Camp Crame, Quezon City, since February 2017.—LDF, GMA Integrated News