De Lima lawyers sue judge in drug case

MANILA, Philippines — The lawyers of Leila de Lima filed an administrative complaint yesterday against a Muntinlupa judge for “belatedly” inhibiting himself from one of the drug cases against the detained former senator despite having a conflict of interest.

Tony La Viña and Ma. Cristina Yambot filed before the Supreme Court’s Judicial Integrity Board (JIB) a complaint seeking disciplinary sanctions against Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 256 Romeo Buenaventura.

The complainants include Teddy Esteban Rigoroso, Dino de Leon and Rolly Francis Peoro, all lawyers of De Lima. They were represented by La Viña and Yambot.

Yambot said Buenaventura should have inhibited himself from the outset as his brother, lawyer Erwin Buenaventura, was involved in De Lima’s prosecution.

The judge’s brother had served as legal adviser to the late Oriental Mindoro congressman Reynaldo Umali, who headed the House of Representatives justice committee that conducted hearings on De Lima’s alleged involvement in the illegal drug trade in 2016.

Buenaventura, however, did not disclose this to the concerned parties, Yambot said.

“The belated inhibition was tainted. Because of this, the processes had a sense of impropriety,” she told reporters in an interview.

Yambot claimed that Buenaventura had a “huge role” in De Lima’s continued detention with his delayed inhibition three years into the trial of the case.

Buenaventura inhibited from De Lima’s case in June when the former senator’s co-accused asked the judge to stop handling the case after learning of his brother’s role and involvement in De Lima’s prosecution.

“If a motion for inhibition had not been filed and the judge himself had not inhibited, the public would not know that there is a conflict of interest with the judge handling De Lima’s case,” Yambot said.

In granting the motion to inhibit, Buenaventura said his ties with his brother do not sufficiently prove that he “acted with malice, bad faith, and partiality” in conducting hearings and in denying the bail petition of De Lima and the other accused.

In May, Muntinlupa RTC Branch 204 Judge Abraham Joseph Alcantara cleared De Lima in one of the three drug cases against them.

Alcantara, however, in July inhibited from De Lima’s last drug case when he granted the motion for inhibition filed by prosecutors who claimed it would put to rest questions on his credibility, integrity and fairness.

De Lima’s last drug case was re-raffled and landed in the sala of Judge Gener Gito of the Muntinlupa RTC Branch 206.

The former senator has been in detention since 2017 even as she has been acquitted in two other drug cases.