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De Lima asks CA to bar convicts from testifying against her


After being rejected by a trial court, Senator Leila de Lima has requested the Court of Appeals (CA) to prohibit convicted inmates from testifying for the government's illegal drugs cases against her.

In a petition filed November 19, the detained lawmaker asked the appeals court to nullify Muntinlupa Judge Lorna Navarro-Domingo's orders denying her motion to disqualify 13 convicts as prosecution witnesses.

De Lima also requested a temporary restraining order, and eventually a writ of prohibition, barring the judge — who has already recused from handling the high-profile cases — from allowing the Department of Justice (DOJ) from presenting the 13 witnesses.

Domingo had acted with grave abuse of discretion by turning down De Lima's motion to disqualify despite the 13 inmates having been convicted of crimes involving moral turpitude, thus violating the rules and the law, the senator told the CA.

De Lima cited Section 20, Rule 130 of the Rules of Court, which states, among others, that "conviction of a crime unless otherwise provided by law," is not a ground for witness disqualification.

She followed this up by mentioning Section 10 of the Witness Protection, Security and Benefit Act, which provides, among others, that a state witness should not have been convicted of any crime involving moral turpitude.

Nonilo Arile, Jojo Baligad, Herbert Colangco, Engelberto Durano, Rodolfo Magleo, Vicente Sy, Hans Tan, Froilan Trestiza, Peter Co, Noel Martinez, Joel Capones, German Agojo, and Jaime Patcho, the prosecution's witnesses, are serving prison sentences for crimes including robbery, murder, homicide, and violation of the Dangerous Drugs Act.

These crimes fall under offenses that involve moral turpitude, De Lima said, citing jurisprudence.

"They are therefore disqualified from becoming State Witnesses under Section 10(f) of RA 6981," the senator argued.

She also mentioned two Supreme Court rulings that she said ruled that the act of turning a person convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude into a state witness is "arbitrary and a gross violation of the rules and the law."

The senator further alleged that the witnesses were "illegally" admitted into the government's Witness Protection Program, hitting DOJ's earlier assertion that the 13 convicted felons are "ordinary witnesses."

"They maintain that the 13 criminal convicts are ordinary witnesses, but they cannot deny the fact that the criminal convicts were granted immunity under Sec. 12 of RA 6981," she said.

"Respondent Judge [Domingo] cannot, without committing grave abuse of discretion, ignore this unanimity in Congress' and the judiciary's treatment of criminals convicted of crimes involving moral turpitude as unreliable and untrustworthy State Witnesses, thereby disqualifying them from becoming such."

Detained since February 2017, De Lima stands trial for her alleged involvement in the drug trade inside the New Bilibid Prison purportedly in exchange for funds for her 2016 senatorial campaign. She has repeatedly denied the charges. — RSJ, GMA News

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