MANILA, Philippines — After filing motions for bail in the drug cases against her, Sen. Leila De Lima is seeking the dismissal of the disobedience to summons case pending before the Quezon City court.

De Lima and her lawyer filed before the QC Metropolitan Trial Court Branch 34 a Demurrer to Evidence, a legal challenge to the sufficiency of the prosecution’s evidence against her that will pave the way for the case’s dismissal.

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Almost four years since she was charged for disobedience to summons or violation of Article 150 of the Revised Penal Code, De Lima asked the court to dismiss the case as she asserted that the prosecution”failed to adduce sufficient evidence of her guilt to overcome the presumption of innocence and shift the burden of proof against the Accused.”

The DOJ on Dec. 21, 2016 indicted De Lima for supposedly telling her former bodyguard and driver Ronnie Dayan, through his daughter, to hide and not attend at the House of Representative probe into illegal drug trade at the New Bilibid Prison.

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Only two witnesses

De Lima said only two witnesses were presented by the prosecution and no other evidence to fill the gaps in their testimonies were given.

“Elementary perusal of their testimonies makes it evident that the Prosecution has failed to adduce sufficient proof that will ‘sustain a judgment of conviction beyond reasonable doubt,’” the motion read.

“It is clear that the Prosecution failed to prove that herein Accused induced anyone to disobey summons issued by the House Committee on Justice of the House of Representatives. The evidence presented is clearly insufficient to show that herein Accused had exerted great dominance and great influence over a person to disobey summons issued by the House of Representatives,” it further read.

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Witness admits lack of personal knowledge

Former Rep. Reynaldo Umali (Mindoro), a prosecution witness, admitted that he did not have personal knowledge of the supposed inducement, or the text exchanges between De Lima and Dayan’s daughter, but only relied on what he heard during the Congressional hearings.

“The issue is if what witness Umali heard during the congressional hearing is true. Umali’s testimony is therefore plain and simple hearsay that is inadmissible to prove the truth or veracity of the allegations that he heard during the congressional hearing,” De Lima’s lawyers said.

They also noted that Umali admitted to filing the complaint in his personal capacity, and no overt resolution from the House of Representatives was given to Umali to initiate the complaint.

Photographer Perfecto Camero meanwhile testified that he took the photo of the alleged text message that Hanna Dayan received, but De Lima argued that this violates the Data Privacy Act as permission was not sought before the picture was taken.

“As such, the pictures ought to have been disallowed,” they said.

They added: “Simply put, it is patently clear that there was even no summons that was ever properly served upon Ronnie Dayan, hence there was nothing to disobey or for somebody to induce someone to disobey. As such, there is no sufficient evidence that serves to frustrate this Demurrer.”

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Summons to Dayan?

De Lima’s team also said the prosecution had failed to prove that Dayan deliberately did not attend the House hearing because nothing on record appears that he received the summons.

There was also no record to show that De Lima knew about the summons and that she “made a persistent and resolute effort to tempt Dayan to ignore said summons.”

It was also not proven that Dayan was absent at the hearing because of supposed instructions from De Lima or merely because the summons were never served upon him.

In June, De Lima had also filed a Motion to Dismiss in the disobedience to summons case, while she filed separate motions for bail on the two pending drug cases she is facing before the Muntinlupa courts.