Detained Sen. Leila de Lima will attend a hearing tomorrow (February 9) in person after a Muntinlupa court granted her request.
In a decision dated February 8, Presiding Judge Romeo Buenaventura of the Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court Branch 256 denied the prosecution’s urgent motion for reconsideration that asked the court to reverse its earlier ruling granting the request of the senator and former Bureau of Corrections director Franklin Jesus Bucayu to personally attend the hearings under drug case 17-167.
The case is a conspiracy to commit illegal drug trading filed by the Department of Justice in 2017 against De Lima, Bucayu, Joenel Sanchez, Ronnie Dayan, Wilfredo Elli, prisoner Jaybee Nino Sebastian and Jose Adrian Dera.
They are accused of using NBP inmates to sell and trade dangerous drugs using mobile phones and other electronic devices, and getting P70 million between March 2013 to May 2015.
In opposing De Lima’s request, the court said, the prosecution argued that the “constitutional right of the accused to confront the witnesses against them may be waived under exceptional circumstances and that accused's said personal right must not defeat the right of the state to primarily safeguard and protect its people from the imminent and possible dangers of the subsisting pandemic."
Last year, De Lima attended the court hearings via teleconferencing due to health protocols set by the Supreme Court due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
Buenaventura ruled that “accused De Lima and Bucayu are not waiving such right. It bears reiterating that the right of a party to confront an opposing witness is an essential part of due process. While it may be true that under several Supreme Court issuances that the right of an accused to confront the witnesses presented against him or her is deemed satisfied if done through remote means, the same nonetheless must be with the consent of the accused.”
"In this case, accused De Lima and Bucayu have expressly invoked their constitutional right to confront their witnesses in person, and have manifested before the Court that they are no longer giving their consent to the further conduct of videoconferencing in order for them to confront their witnesses," the court said.
In the hearing tomorrow, the prosecution is scheduled to present its witness, convict Noel Martinez, for cross-examination.