THE Muntinlupa court judge who was assigned to handle former Senator Leila de Lima’s last illegal drug case on Thursday inhibited himself following the request of the prosecution, which noted that he had acquitted De Lima in the second of her three drug charges.
In a July 6 order, Judge Joseph Abraham Alcantara of the Muntinlupa City Regional Trial Court Branch 204 said he was exercising “prudent discretion” by desisting from the case “not because the prosecution’s assertion is true but to put to rest any questions against his credibility, integrity and fairness.”
He also canceled the July 7 hearing of De Lima’s trial.
Earlier, Judge Romeo Buenaventura of Branch 256 inhibited himself from the same case to remove perceptions of his partiality due to his association with persons linked to the case, including his lawyer-brother.
In May, Alcantara acquitted De Lima in her second drug case in connection with charges she was involved in the drug trade at the New Bilibid Prison in Muntilupa City during her term as justice secretary.
On June 15, Buenaventura, who denied De Lima’s bail petition after finding strong evidence against her and her co-accused, granted the motions for inhibition filed by De Lima’s former aides Ronnie Dayan and Joenel Sanchez, and former Bureau of Corrections director Franklin Jesus Bucayu to inhibit himself.
