(Eagle News)–Senator Leila de Lima has asked the Department of Justice panel hearing the sedition charges filed against her and several others to remove the Office of the Solicitor General as counsel for the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, the acting complainant.
In seeking for the OSG’s removal in a 13-page motion filed on Aug. 14, De Lima said it is “illegal and improper” for Solicitor General Jose Calida to appear as the lawyer for the police based on Urbano v. Chavez, which she said has “well- and pointedly settled” that the OSG has no authority to participate in the preliminary investigation stage of criminal proceedings.
According to De Lima, the OSG has a unique and exclusive statutory mandate to represent the government in the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals in all criminal proceedings.
As appellate counsel of the government in criminal cases, De Lima said the OSG’s client in these proceedings is the prosecution arm of the government, or the panel of prosecutors itself.
But at the preliminary probe stage, De Lima said “the People of the Philippines” represented by the panel of prosecutors, is still sitting as an impartial arbiter between the conflicting claims of the complainant and the respondents.
“In short, it is improper for the OSG to represent the complainant because it cannot appear before its client and argue in favor of one of the contending parties because in a just and fair criminal justice system, both adversarial sides have the same chances of winning or losing before the honorable panel of prosecutors,” she said.
In her motion, De Lima also noted that the CIDG was “merely a nominal complainant as it has no personal knowledge about the allegations, which are being made by a private individual Peter Joemel Advincula.”
Advincula claims to be the yellow-hooded character in the Ang Totoong Narco-list videos that accused President Rodrigo Duterte’s family of being engaged in the illegal drug trade.
According to De Lima, “if the OSG insists on representing the complainant, it is, in truth and in fact, advocating for the truth of Mr. Advincula’s allegations, and therefore, representing Mr. Advincula.”
But such representation, she said, is illegal and improper because Advincula is not only a private individual, but also “someone whose capacity for falsehood has been proven beyond reasonable doubt due to his conviction of a crime involving moral turpitude; and is himself one of the respondents in this case.”
“Regardless of whether he is telling the truth or not as to the participation of his co-respondents, it is already beyond doubt that he has committed a wrong (either by committing a crime in conspiracy with the other respondents, or by perjuring himself in executing his Sworn Statement),” De Lima said.
In her motion, the senator also asked the DOJ to expunge all documents and pleadings filed by the OSG in the cases filed by the CIDG.
