President Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr. would not interfere in the case proceedings of detained former senator Leila de Lima.
In an interview with the media on Friday, Oct. 14, Marcos was asked about his response to the calls of opposition leaders who said he could use his legal powers as the chief executive to order the Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecutors to drop the case.
“I think urging prosecutors to do one thing and another is interfering. So that’s why I’ve said we very very clear that we have three departments of the government. Siguro naman dapat ay pabayaan natin, hindi naman pinagdududahan ang proseso eh,” he told the reporters during the 8th Annual Balik Scientist Program Convention in Pasay.
Marcos said his administration would continue to monitor the case proceeding.
In a statement on Wednesday, Albay 1st district Rep. Edcel Lagman claimed that Marcos could order the dismissal of the charges against de Lima.
“It is not intruding into the domain of the courts when the President would order prosecutors to move for the dismissal of criminal cases where inculpatory evidence is lacking like in the two remaining cases of De Lima where major prosecution witnesses have recanted, or order prosecutors to withdraw opposition to De Lima’s petition for bail because the evidence of guilt is not strong against her,” he explained.
Marcos shared that when he spoke with de Lima on the phone through Interior Secretary Benjamin ‘Benhur’ Abalos after the hostage incident, she denied his offer to transfer her to another prison facility.
He also said that the former senator did not make a request to him about the case.
“She never asked me to do anything. ‘Yun lang yung tweet niya, what she tweeted I think yesterday, that was the extent of our discussion with the former senator,” Marcos said.
In a Twitter post on Thursday, De Lima asked Marcos to order the DOJ to stop blocking the testimony of recanting witnesses.
De Lima, a known critic of former president Rodrigo Roa Duterte, was detained since 2017 over charges linked to a drug-trafficking scandal.
