Members of the opposition in the Senate should focus on the ongoing deliberation of the proposed 2021 budget instead of fighting for the release of detained Senator Leila de Lima anew, Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo said in a statement on Sunday.
“The colleagues of de Lima should focus on their duties on deliberating on the national budget and stop themselves from lawyering for de Lima. That’s not what the taxpayers pay them to do.”
This statement was made after de Lima’s colleagues in the Senate minority bloc called for her release.
In a joint statement, the Senate minority bloc said considering that testimonies from the Anti-Money Laundering Council and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency were made under oath, the testifiers “had no reason not to tell the truth.”
De Lima’s legal counsel Boni Tacardon earlier said AMLC financial investigator Artemio Baculi Jr. and PDEA digital forensic examiner Krystal Caseñas have told the court that they did not find any suspicious transactions that would link the senator to drug trading inside the National Bilibid Prison (NBP) in Muntinlupa City.
Panelo said Baculi’s testimony does not exculpate de Lima because he never investigated her and there were other witnesses that testified that she received money from drug lords.
“At any rate, what witness Artemio Baculi, Jr. of AMLC said was even if de Lima’s name was mentioned in the talks among drug lords, he never investigated her. That testimony does not exculpate de Lima. Other witnesses have testified she received money from the drug lords,” he said.
“That testimony does not prove that she did not receive drug money. It can only mean she did not deposit the money she received from the drug lords in her bank account,” he added.
Panelo also claimed that de Lima is being afforded all the rights and privileges of a person accused of being involved in the drug trade, so her colleagues should “know better.”
“They should know their law, do they? There are remedial processes that may be availed of should they feel that the cases against the embattled senator must be dismissed. Issuing statements before the media is among them. That is a job for the lawyer of de Lima,” he said.
He said the minority bloc should simply allow the law to take its course.
De Lima has been in detention since February 2017 due to drug-related charges.
