Another judge recuses self in De Lima drug case

Another Muntinlupa City judge has inhibited from hearing one of the three drug cases filed by the government against Senator Leila De Lima.

Judge Myra Bayot-Quiambao of the Muntinlupa City Regional Trial Court Branch 203 said she had to inhibit due to her "very close relationship" with Senior Assistant City Prosecutor Leila Llanes, a member of the Department of Justice prosecution team.

Quiambao said Llanes was her law school classmate and godparent of her two children. The judge added majority of the members of the prosecution panel were colleagues of her late husband, State Prosecutor Nolibien Quiambao.

"Let the records of this case be immediately forwarded to the Office of the Clerk of Court-Regional Trial Court for re-raffle," Quiambao said in an order dated January 23.

Quiambao's inhibition came a day after the case was raffled off to her sala on January 22.

The case was previously with Judge Juanita Guerrero of Branch 204 but she recused herself after De Lima accused her of displaying "an unseemly and undue haste” in ensuring her detention.

De Lima cited Guerrero's alleged inaction on the pending motion to quash and the scheduling of the senator’s arraignment prior to the resolution of her petition with the Supreme Court (SC) to nullify her arrest.

The SC upheld Guerrero's arrest order in October last year.

The other drug cases are being heard by Muntinlupa RTC Branch 205 Judge Amelia Fabros-Corpuz and Branch 206 Judge Patria Manalastas-De Leon. 

De Lima is accused of conspiring with high-profile inmates to sell or trade illegal drugs inside the national penitentiary during her term as Justice secretary allegedly in exchange for millions of pesos that she supposedly used for her senatorial campaign.

The neophyte senator has repeatedly denied the accuastion.

A staunch critic of the Duterte administration, De Lima presently detained at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center in Camp Crame, Quezon City. —KBK, GMA News