Former Sen. Leila De Lima —File photograph/Senate PRIB
MANILA, Philippines — The Supreme Court docket has discovered Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court docket Choose Romeo Buenaventura responsible of easy misconduct and neglect of responsibility in dealing with the high-profile drug case in opposition to former Sen. Leila de Lima.
In a decision issued on Nov. 13, 2024, the excessive court docket’s First Division imposed a high quality of P36,000 on Buenaventura—P18,000 for easy misconduct, constituting a violation of the New Code of Judicial Conduct, and one other P18,000 for easy neglect of responsibility within the efficiency or nonperformance of official capabilities.
“Respondent Romeo Buenaventura is STERNLY WARNED {that a} repetition of the identical offense or the fee of an analogous act shall be handled extra severely,” the excessive tribunal mentioned.
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The case stemmed from an administrative criticism filed by legal professionals Teddy Esteban Rigoroso and Rolly Francis Peoro, De Lima’s authorized counsels, who alleged that Buenaventura violated judicial ethics and triggered undue delay in ruling on their shopper’s movement for bail in Felony Case No. 17-167, whereby she was accused of unlawful drug buying and selling.
De Lima’s movement for bail in that case was filed on Dec. 14, 2020, and took three years to be resolved, on June 7, 2023, underneath Buenaventura’s watch.
Battle of curiosity
State prosecutors had accused De Lima of conspiring with Franklin Bucayu; Bucayu’s employees member, Wilfredo Elli; the late New Bilibid Jail (NBP) inmate Jaybee Sebastian; police informant Jose Adrian Dera; and De Lima’s former aides Ronnie Dayan and Joenel Sanchez of drug dealing within the nationwide penitentiary for her 2016 senatorial marketing campaign funds.
Felony Case No. 17-167 was one in every of three drug instances in opposition to De Lima that have been ultimately dismissed by completely different Muntinlupa courts in 2021, 2023 and 2024. Earlier than the ultimate case was resolved, De Lima, a former justice secretary, was granted bail in November 2023 and launched from detention.
Rigoroso and Peoro, of their criticism in opposition to Buenaventura, mentioned he ought to have instantly recused himself as a result of battle of curiosity, contemplating that his brother, lawyer Emmanuel Buenaventura, had performed a “direct and vital position within the preparation of proof” resulting in De Lima’s prosecution.
Emmanuel Buenaventura served as authorized adviser to the late Rep. Reynaldo Umali, the previous chair of the Home of Representatives committee on justice, which led the 2016 inquiry into the proliferation of drug buying and selling inside NBP.
The testimonies of useful resource individuals within the hearings, together with NBP convicts, shaped the idea for 3 unique conspiracy-to-commit-drug-trading instances filed in opposition to De Lima and her coaccused.
Brother’s actions
In separate motions for inhibition, Dayan, Sanchez and Bucayu mentioned that Emmanuel admitted in a tv interview on Nov. 25, 2016, that he assisted Dayan within the execution of his affidavit whereas Dayan was being held within the interview room of the Home of Representatives.
Buenaventura voluntarily inhibited himself from additional listening to De Lima’s remaining drug case however insisted he was not aware of his brother’s earlier actions as a lawyer.
In sanctioning Romeo Buenaventura, the Supreme Court docket adopted the findings and suggestions of the Judicial Integrity Board (JIB), which mentioned that Emmanuel Buenaventura’s ties with Dayan in the course of the 2016 congressional listening to made him answerable underneath Canon 4, Part 4 of the New Code of Judicial Conduct.
The supply states that “judges shall not take part within the willpower of a case wherein any member of their household represents a litigant or is related in any method with the case.”
“Just like the JIB, we’re unconvinced that the respondent had no inkling of his brother’s affiliation with Dayan, because the congressional hearings in 2016 have been a lot publicized,” the Supreme Court docket mentioned.
Pandemic
As for the three-year delay in resolving De Lima’s movement for bail, Buenaventura attributed it to work suspensions attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nonetheless, the Supreme Court docket rejected this argument, mentioning that videoconferencing hearings had been obtainable since January 2021.
“Respondent due to this fact had adequate means at his disposal to resolve the movement for bail. Given the abstract nature of bail proceedings, it was crucial for the respondent to resolve the movement in probably the most expeditious method attainable,” the excessive court docket mentioned.
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