Atin Ito First Filipino Community Newspaper in Ontario
THE judge in the last illegal drug case standing between former senator Leila de Lima and her freedom from detention inhibited himself after he was accused of conflict of interest.
Judge Romeo Buenaventura of Branch 256 of the Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court (RTC) granted the motions for inhibition filed by De Lima’s former aides Ronnie Dayan and Joenel Sanchez, and former Bureau of Corrections director Franklin Jesus Bucayu.
They asked Buenaventura to inhibit himself after learning that he was the brother of lawyer Emmanuel Buenaventura, the former counsel of the late Rep. Reynaldo Umali, chairman of the House of Representatives’ justice panel, which conducted hearings into the alleged drug trade in the New Bilibid Prison that supposedly involved De Lima.
The judge denied last week the application for bail by De Lima, Sanchez, Bucayu, Dayan and the former senator’s alleged bagman, Jose Adrian Dera, as he ruled that the evidence of their guilt was strong.
With the inhibition of Buenaventura, the records of the illegal drugs case will be transmitted to the executive judge for re-raffle to the other branches of the court for the continuation of the proceedings.
Buenaventura said he did not know that his brother was the former counsel of Dayan who helped him execute his affidavit, which he has since recanted.
De Lima has won two of the illegal drug cases that were filed against her during the administration of former president Rodrigo Duterte.
The third case is the remaining obstacle to her release from prison where she stayed for the last six years.
De Lima incurred the ire of Duterte following a series of investigations she conducted as a Justice secretary under the administration of the late president Benigno Aquino 3rd against the then Davao City mayor over his links to the “Davao Death Squad (DDS).”
De Lima remains in jail even after several witnesses have recanted their testimonies.
— Alexandra J. Furio
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Credit belongs to : www.manilatimes.net
