FORMER Senator Leila M. de Lima’s trial would likely get delayed after a Muntinlupa trial judge granted a government plea to inhibit himself from her third and last drug trafficking case, according to a human rights lawyer.
“It will cause further delay since the record will be transmitted again to the clerk of the regional trial court for a reraffle,” Ephraim B. Cortez, president of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers, said in a Viber message at the weekend.
Judge Abraham Joseph B. Alcantara, who acquitted the former lawmaker in a separate illegal drug case in May, granted the motion for inhibition filed by state prosecutors.
Prosecutors on July 5 asked the magistrate to inhibit himself from the case, arguing that his acquittal ruling casts doubt on his impartiality.
The former senator, who was arrested in 2017 and accused of taking drug money months after leading a Senate investigation into former President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s war on drugs, originally faced three charges and was also cleared in one case in 2021.
Mr. Cortez said a judge’s decision to recuse himself from a case does not automatically show bias in favor or against a defendant.
“If an act of a judge generates on a litigant the perception of partiality, then there is sufficient basis to inhibit,” he said. “All judges are presumed independent and impartial.”
Ms. De Lima, 63, and her former aide were acquitted of the charges for reasonable doubt. The main witness, former Bureau of Corrections chief Rafael Ragos, took back his testimony against her.
Last year, the Ombudsman cleared her of bribery charges for insufficient evidence.
Government prosecutors had appealed the acquittal in May despite the double jeopardy rule, which prevents someone who has been acquitted from being charged with the same crime.
The former senator, one of Mr. Duterte’s staunchest critics, appealed the court’s denial of her bail plea last month.
Four witnesses have retracted their testimonies against the former lawmaker, claiming that the previous government had coerced them into testifying against her.
Ms. De Lima incurred Mr. Duterte’s ire when, as chairwoman of the Commission on Human Rights, she started a probe in 2009 into extrajudicial killings by the so-called Davao Death Squad in the tough-talking leader’s hometown, where he was the long-time mayor. Mr. Duterte later vowed to “destroy” her.
The previous administration’s deadly drug war is now being investigated by the International Criminal Court for possible “crimes against humanity.”
Political experts have said her detention showed how the government had abused the justice system.
“Technically, judges are of proven integrity, probity and independence,” Mr. Cortez said. “Of course, the perception of litigants matter, since the principle is that a judge must not only be impartial but must also appear impartial.”
The former senator has asserted her innocence, saying she was being tried for criticizing the government’s deadly drug war.
A delegation of lawmakers from the European Union Parliament visited the Philippines in February and urged the government to release Ms. De Lima to show its commitment to human rights.
Amnesty International has said the government had deprived the ex-senator of her right to a fair trial through her arbitrary detention.
At least 6,117 suspected drug dealers had been killed in police operations, according to data released by the Philippine government in June 2021. Human rights groups estimate that as many as 30,000 suspects died. — John Victor D. Ordoñez