MANILA, Philippines — Officials from the Anti-Money Laundering Council and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency testified that Sen. Leila de Lima was not involved in any anomalous transactions linking her to the illegal drug trade inside the New Bilibid Prison, her lawyer said Friday.
Lawyer Boni Tacardon, De Lima’s legal counsel, in a statement revealed that AMLC Financial Investigator Artemio Baculi Jr. and PDEA Digital Forensic Examiner Krystal Caseñas during a hearing "both affirmed that they found no suspicious transactions between De Lima and drug convicts."
The hearing was held at the Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court Branch 205 on Friday and was attended by De Lima — currently detained at the PNP Custodial Center in Camp Crame, Quezon City — via teleconference.
"Earlier, Mr. Artemio Baculi of AMLC presented Criminal Case 165 and he said that even though he heard Senator De Lima's name in the conversations, he never investigated the senator," Tacardon was quoted as saying in Filipino by De Lima's office.
According to Tacardon, the AMLC investigator also testified that there was no transaction between inmate Peter Co, Ronnie Dayan — who are co-accused in the case— and De Lima.
"It may be recalled that Baculi first appeared before Branch 205 last Sept. 25 wherein he admitted that his investigation of people suspected to have been involved in the Bilibid drug trade showed that no money flowed from the bank accounts which were the subject of his investigation to either De Lima or her co-accused in Criminal Case No. 17-166, Jose Adrian Dera," De Lima's office said.
READ: AMLC investigator testified De Lima not involved in Bilibid drug trade, her lawyer says
Co said he delivered P5 million twice to Dera. The money was supposedly meant to fund the senatorial campaign of De Lima who was then justice secretary. However, Tarcadon said that a PDEA official revealed "very crucial information" on this during the hearing.
"In Criminal Case No. 166, the prosecution presented Ms. Crystal Caseñas. What she said earlier is very important, because she admitted during our questioning, that in the cellphone extraction report released by the PDEA through Caseñas, there was no mention [of any drug related transactions] between Jad Dera... and Senator De Lima," Tarcadon explained in Filipino.
The lawyer further added that, in the drug lords' cellphones held by PDEA, there was no mention of De Lima being part of a drug transaction, according to the Caseñas.
"Caseñas’ affidavit indicating that the cellphones she received from the Bureau of Corrections were Peter Co’s property, meanwhile, was stricken off by the Court, as this was only her opinion," De Lima's office said. Tacardon also pointed out that Caseñas may have violated the Cybercrime Law when she examined Co’s phones without proper warrant.
"De Lima recently filed two separate and distinct Motions for Bail for both Conspiracy to Commit Illegal Drug Trading cases, asserting that the Prosecution's evidence against her is not strong, and in fact confirmatory of her innocence of the charges. As of this writing, Judge Liezel Aquiatan has yet to rule on both Motions," her office said.
READ: Saying evidence against her is weak, De Lima seeks provisional liberty
— with reports from Kristine Joy Patag