De Lima asks QC court to junk disobedience to summons case
MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Leila De Lima sought the dismissal of the disobedience to summons case against her for lack of evidence and for delays in proceedings.
De Lima, through her lawyer Teddy Rigoroso, filed a Motion to Dismiss before the Quezon City Metropolitan Trial Court Branch 34 on June 25, a copy of which was made public only on Monday.
In her latest motion, De Lima’s lawyer said the senator must be acquitted of the charge of disobedience to summons over her supposed advice to former bodyguard Ronnie Dayan, through his daughter, to hide and skip House of Representatives hearings.
Delay in proceedings
They cited the repeated motions for extension and reset of hearings, and the delay caused by the errors in the filing of a “corrected” Judicial Affidavit of former Rep. Reynaldo Umali (Oriental Mindoro), a witness in the case.
"These actions seemingly show a pattern designed to delay the trial and the disposition of the case at bar,” the motion read. The lawyer said this also violates De Lima’s right to speedy trial and disposition of case.
“It is clearly vexatious, capricious and oppressive as against the accused. This should be stopped because the summary nature of this cause has continuously been undermined,” it added.
Lack of evidence
De Lima also said the prosecution failed to establish elements of the crime of inducement to disobey summons.
Her lawyer noted that records did not show that Dayan personally received the invitation from the House of Representatives. There is also no evidence of the text messages between De Lima and Dayan’s daughter.
Even if there was conversation between De Lima and Dayan’s daughter, “the prosecutor failed to prove the existence of any influence of the alleged conversation between Ms. Hannah Mae Dayan and herein accused to the actions of Mr. Ronnie Palisoc Dayan.”
“Ultimately, there is no proof of any causal relation between the alleged refusal to appear before the House of Representatives of Mr. Ronnie Palisoc Dayan and the alleged communication between herein accused and Ms. Hannah Mae Dayan. There can, thus be no finding of inducement and a violation of Article 150 of the Revised Penal Code,” the motion further read.
De Lima has been detained at the police headquarters since February 2017 over drug-related charges that she says are politically motivated.
- Latest
- Trending
