Judge in de Lima drug case inhibits self
THE judge handling the drug case of detained Sen. Leila de Lima inhibited herself from further conducting hearings, according to an order she herself signed.
In the order dated November 5, a copy of which was posted on social media on Tuesday, Judge Lorna Navarro-Domingo of the Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court said that while she found “no sufficient ground to inhibit herself,” she was doing so to show “good faith to all parties concerned.”
Domingo’s decision was prompted by de Lima’s “motion of inhibition,” citing the judge’s alleged bias in the early disqualification of the prosecution’s witnesses and by refusing to open the trial to the public.
De Lima claimed that Domingo’s decision to disqualify the prosecution’s witnesses was “premature” as she handed it down even before the senator could reply to the prosecution’s opposition to her previous petition asking the court not to recognize the witnesses.
De Lima claimed that Domingo violated her own order in giving her five days to respond when she said that the senator ran out of time despite the fact that the fifth day fell on a Sunday and that she gave the senator until the following day to file her response. LIEZELLE ROY
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