DOJ yet to produce AMLC report implicating De Lima in drug trade —senator's camp

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has yet to produce the Anti-Money Laundering Council's (AMLC) report allegedly showing that Senator Leila de Lima received proceeds of the New Bilibid Prison illegal drug trade, the lawmaker's camp said Tuesday.

The report "is still a work in progress," a prosecutor said in a November 22 hearing at the Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court, according to a statement from De Lima's team issued four days later.

"Either the AMLC Report is being manufactured and tailor-made to suit the requirements of the prosecution, or the DOJ is simply engaged in a drawn-out fishing expedition, in the absence of any bank transaction documents proving that De Lima indeed received proceeds of the drug trade," Filibon Tacardon, one of the senator's lawyers, said.

GMA News Online has sought comment from the DOJ.

Former Justice secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II said as early as 2016 that the National Bureau of Investigation had the summaries of financial transactions of people suspected to have been involved in the Bilibid drug trade, allegedly including De Lima.

The opposition senator has been detained for more than two years on charges of conspiracy to commit illegal drug trading in exchange for funds for her 2016 senatorial campaign. She has repeatedly denied the allegations.

Aguirre also claimed that De Lima ordered millions of pesos from drug lords inside the Bilibid deposited into the bank account of Ronnie Dayan, her former aide.

The former DOJ chief admitted at the time that the department was still looking into how the account, which was not under De Lima's name, could be linked to the senator.

De Lima had said such accounts were "fictitious."

During the last court hearing, prosecutors also admitted that the bank accounts that witnesses -- convicts detained at the Bilibid -- said were used to deposit De Lima's alleged share in drug money are not in her name, her team said.

The defense has repeatedly asked for the details of these supposed Banco de Oro (BDO) accounts, but prosecutors claimed a subpoena was no longer necessary and told the court they will submit the AMLC report instead, De Lima's camp said.

“Kaya pala. Aminado pala sila na walang kinalaman si Sen. De Lima sa mga BDO accounts na yan na pawang mga inimbentong numero lamang ng mga testigo ng gobyerno," Tacardon said in the statement.

“Of course we knew that all along na walang ganyang mga bank accounts si Senator. Kasi kung meron, matagal na dapat nilang linabas yan," he added. —LDF, GMA News