Judge inhibits from De Lima’s last drug case

by GAEA KATREENA CABICO Philstar.com

MANILA — The judge handling the last illegal drugs charge against Leila De Lima has inhibited himself from the case after the former senator’s co-accused cited a conflict of interest.

In a seven-page order dated June 15, Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court Branch

256 Judge Romeo Buenaventura granted the motions for inhibition filed by De Lima’s former aides Ronnie Dayan and Joenel Sanchez, and former Bureau of Corrections director Franklin Jesus Bucayu. De Lima’s co-accused had asked Buenaventura to stop handling the case after learning the judge is the brother of lawyer Emmanuel Buenaventura, supposedly the former counsel of the late Rep. Reynaldo Umali.

Umali was the chairperson of the House of Representatives’ justice panel when it was conducting hearings into the alleged drug trade in the New Bilibid Prison that supposedly involved De Lima.

“Simply put, the suspicion of the accused-movants, while unfounded if not contrived, cannot be ignored since it already tarnished the integrity and impartiality of the Court as well as the needed trust and confidence in all subsequent proceedings in the instant case,” Buenaventura said.

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