Press Statement by Sen. Lacson's Lawyers

It is unfortunate that Sec de Lima is being misled regarding the facts of the case.

Contrary to her claims:

1) We have no pending second motion for reinvestigation but simply an MR on the denial of our motion for reinvestigation. Precisely, under the rules, we submitted newly discovered evidence to justify the filing of such MR and to justify reinvestigation.

2) We have no pending petition with the Court of Appeals questioning the motion for reinvestigation previously denied by the RTC Branch 18. We could not have done so since our MR is still pending before the lower court. What we filed with the appellate court is a petition for certiorari with application for TRO and preliminary injunction questioning the judicial determination of probable cause ruling by the lower court.

3) We are not asking the DOJ to preempt the trial court on the reinvestigation. We are asking the DOJ to withdraw its opposition to the reinvestigation and join our efforts to persuade the trial court to direct the conduct of the reinvestigation, and to lift the warrants of arrest in the meantime.

We still hope that Sec. De Lima meant it when she recently declared that she has the “plenary power” to conduct a reinvestigation under certain conditions. She should not simply listen to the advice of the prosecutors who appear bent on defending at all costs the wrongful actions they had taken against Senator Lacson. Lacson has gone on record to say that the cases against him were filed in blind obedience to the instructions of former DOJ Secretaries, to put him away because of his relentless efforts to fight corruption under the previous administration.

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