De Lima bail request junked

Former senator Leila de Lima will stay in detention in Camp Crame after a Muntinlupa court denied her petition for bail in her last remaining drug case.

In a decision dated june 7, presiding Judge Romeo Buenaventura of the Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 256 denied the petitions and motions for bail filed by De Lima and co-accused Franklin Jesus Bucayu, Ronnie Dayan, Joenel Sanchez and Jose Adrian Dera in case 17-167.

“Wherefore, premises considered, the instant petitions and motions for bail are hereby denied,” Buenaventura wrote in his decision.

He added, “Considering the foregoing and after a careful review of the totality of prosecution’s evidence, the Court is convinced that the evidence of guilt against all the above-named accused for the crime of conspiracy to commit illegal drug trading is strong.”

Under case 17-167, filed by the Department of Justice in February 2017, De Lima, Bucayu, Dayan, Sanchez, Dera, Wilfredo Elli and Jaybee Sebastian (now deceased) were charged with conspiracy to commit illegal drug trading.

The DOJ charged that between March 2013 to May 2015, the accused used inmates at the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa to sell and trade dangerous drugs using mobile phones and other electronic devices, and allegedly got the proceeds amounting to P70 million.

“At the outset, it must be pointed out that based on the evidence, taken as a whole, the prosecution portrayed the entire picture of the conspiracy to commit illegal drug trading among the accused in this wise: a) accused De Lima, Sanchez, Dayan, and Dera, together with inmates Colanggo, Sebastian, Durano, Capones, Martinez, and their respective subordinates, conspired to sell and dispose the smuggled drugs, with the purpose of using the proceeds thereof in raising De Lima’s campaign funds for the 2016 senatorial elections” according to the court.

“Accused De Lima, through accused Sanchez and Dayan, and accused Bucayu, through accused Elli, in exchange of granting requests of inmate Colanggo to smuggle drugs and communication devices and giving protection to the inmates’ illegal drug transactions, received payola sourced from the same drug transactions,” the court added.

The court also said that De Lima’s “plea for provisional liberty on humanitarian considerations is untenable.”

“In her Supplemental Motion for Bail, accused De Lima further pleads for the grant of her bail application on the grounds that she is now a senior citizen and has several health issues which necessitated several medical furloughs in the past few years; that adequate and prompt medical attention is always difficult when under detention; and that she is not a flight risk. The Court finds the grounds not compelling,” according to the decision.

It said that “the accused herself admitted that though she is already a senior citizen and has several health issues, she is not suffering from any serious or life-threatening health condition. This negates the need for her to be placed in a special or alternative facility outside of her current confinement.”

“As to accused’s concerns about adequate and prompt medical attention, she is not without a remedy. She could always file the appropriate pleadings or motions for that purpose for the Court’s consideration and approval,” the court said.

The court noted that the incident wherein De Lima was taken hostage at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center is “an isolated occurrence and a matter falling within the responsibility of the PNP Custodial Center. If need be, the present jail facility should reevaluate its security protocols and visitation guidelines to ensure the welfare and safety of its detainees.”

“All the foregoing, notwithstanding, let it be stressed that in finding the evidence of guilt strong, the Court does not in any way prejudge what the final outcome of the case will be. The culpability or innocence of the accused will still be decided on the basis of all the evidence presented by the parties and only after trial on the merits of the case,” it said.

It added, “To repeat, the purpose of the hearing is merely to determine the weight of evidence for purposes of bail. Thus, all that the present resolution has determined is that based on evidence thus far adduced by the prosecution, the Court is convinced that there is great probability that the crime charged has been committed and that the accused are the agents thereof. After all, that the evidence of guilt is strong does not equate to a finding of proof of guilt beyond reasonable doubt.”

Two drug cases filed against De Lima were already dismissed by Muntinlupa courts.