JUSTICE Secretary Menardo Guevarra on Wednesday challenged detained Sen. Leila M. de Lima to avail all the legal remedies to gain her freedom rather than relying on foreign groups and individuals to pressure the government into releasing her from detention.
Speaking before media men at the Kapihan sa Manila Bay forum, Guevarra admitted that he was baffled by de Lima’s non-filing of a motion to post bail despite her insistence that the evidence submitted by the prosecutors in the conspiracy to commit illegal-drug charges filed against her before the trial courts in Muntinlupa City are fabricated and weak.
“If you believe that the charges against you are not true then slug it out, fight it out, file a demurrer to evidence. If you want to file a petition for bail, so there are so many legal remedies available to her,” Guevarra told de Lima.
“If that is her position, why has not she applied for bail? Why is it that other people, even foreigners will be asking for her freedom now, temporary or permanently, but she, herself, has not applied for bail? So what could be the reason for that? We can only guess about the possible reasons. It’s up to you to think why she hasn’t filed a petition for bail,” he added.
Guevarra maintained that the call of US Senators Dick Durbin and Patrick Leahy, who authored the ban on Philippine government officials behind the alleged wrongful detention of de Lima for her immediate release from jail is illegal.
He said de Lima’s indictment and incarceration for her involvement in the illegal-drug trade was in consonance with the country’s criminal laws.
“What the US senators are saying, they are saying free de lima now. First of all, that is against our law because trial is still ongoing. How can you release a person that is still undergoing trial. She can only be released if she gets acquitted and if she gets convicted, only executive clemency can free her because that is life imprisonment for the offense charge. But if you’ll notice something, people are asking, some sectors are asking to free her, but haven’t you noticed that de Lima has not even thought of filing a petition for bail,” Guevarra asked.
However, Guevarra expressed optimism that the travel ban and the freezing of assets of those believed to be behind de Lima’s supposed illegal detention which have been included as provisions in the 2020 US Appropriations Act would not be implemented eventually by the US State Department.
He explained that the US State Department, which will implement the resolution, would have to determine and convince itself whether not there was wrongful detention, or imprisonment, on the part of de Lima.
Assuming that they believe that de Lima’s was a victim of wrongful detention, and was not accorded due process, Guevarra said, the US State Department would have to identify the people supposedly responsible for de Lima’s current predicament.
“But I am sure that if they exercise some prudence and circumspection, I’m talking about the US state Department, they will realize that where is the wrongful imprisonment, wrongful detention here, everything was followed in accordance with the laws of the Republic of the Philippines,” the DOJ secretary said.