Dispatch from Crame No. 1,037:
On SOJ Guevarra's remark that Sen. De Lima's conviction is "inevitable"

2/23/21

Either Sec. Guevarra has not yet read our demurrers and the rulings of Judge Aquiatan thereon, or he does not understand or refuses to recognize the merits of our plea for demurrer. He also knows that we could still seek reconsideration, as we in fact filed an MR yesterday, of the ruling in the other case denying our demurrer.

If he is so confident about the inevitability of my conviction, then why does this government have to keep up the pressure on the judiciary just to convict me? Maybe that is why he is so confident. He is so confident on Duterte's hold on the judicial system he seems to foreclose the possibility that the judicial system will somehow correct itself and soon refuse to be manipulated by a tyrant.

I hate to say this, but I am very disappointed in Sec. Guevarra. Since he worked with us in the PNoy administration, he very well knows that I could not possibly have done what his Department and his President now are now moving heaven and earth to prove that I did.

DOJ's primary mandate is not only to run after or prosecute the bad guys but also to make sure that no injustice is inflicted upon an innocent person. Justice is such a sacred ideal that it cannot and must not be trifled upon, let alone desecrated, under any circumstances, in the name of abject servitude to an aberrant and vindictive Chief Executive. ###

Access the handwritten copy of Dispatch from Crame No. 1037 here: https://issuu.com/senatorleilam.delima/docs/dispatch_1037