THE prosecutors who earlier filed drug charges against Senator Leila De Lima have asked the Muntinlupa court judge who issued the arrest warrant against the senator to consolidate all her three drug cases.
Peter Ong, the head of the panel of prosecutors, on Friday asked branch 204 presiding judge Juanita Guerrero to try all the three cases filed against De Lima and seven others over their alleged involvement in the illegal drug trading in the state penitentiary.
"Record shows that the cases arose from similar set of facts; there are common parties and issues; and interrelated evidence will be presented in court," the motion stated.
Guerrero was the judge who issued the arrest warrants against De Lima, her former driver Ronnie Dayan and former Bureau of Corrections (Bucor) officer-in-charge Rafael Ragos on February 23.
All the three accused are accounted for. De Lima is detained at the Philippine National Police (PNP) Custodial Center in Camp Crame, Dayan is at the Muntinlupa police jail and Ragos is at a jail facility in the National Bureau of Investigation.
"Considering that Criminal Case No. 17-165 bears the lowest docket number and is assigned to the RTC branch 204, justice and expediency demand that it is more practical and will serve the ends of justice to consolidate all three cases in the said branch to avoid unnecessary costs and to prevent the issuance of conflicting resolutions, orders and decisions," the prosecutors explained.
Guerrero upon receiving the motion gave De Lima's camp 10 days to submit a comment.
The Department of Justice has filed three separate drug cases against the senator on February 17 after finding probable cause to charge her for violation of RA 9165 or Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.
Four days after the cases were raffled off to Muntinlupa RTC branches 204, 205, and 206, Guerrero ordered her arrest of De Lima, Dayan and Ragos.
This has prompted the senator to file a petition with the Supreme Court to nullify the arrest order issued by Guerrero.
According to De Lima, Guerrero acted with grave abuse of discretion when she issued the warrants of arrest pending her motion to quash the case based on lack of jurisdiction and lack of evidence.
The high court will conduct oral arguments on De Lima's petition on March 14.
The panel of prosecutors is set to file another motion with the Muntinlupa RTC seeking to prohibit senator de Lima's lawyers, the lawyers of her co-accused and justice secretary Vitaliano Aguirre from discussing the merits of the senator's cases in public. (SunStar Philippines)