SC orders Sen. De Lima to respond on disbarment complaint

The complainants accused Sen. Leila De Lima of gross immorality and violating the Lawyers Oath and the Code of Professional Responsibility. (Photo by Cesar Tomambo/Senate of the Philippines)

MANILA—The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday directed former Justice Secretary and now Senator Leila de Lima to comment on the disbarment complaint filed by lawyer Fernando Perito late last year in connection of her admitted love affair with her former driver Ronnie Dayan.

SC spokesman Theodore Te said the Court made the decision during their regular en banc directing De Lima to comment on the complaint within 10 days.

“In the matter of Atty. Fernando P. Perito vs. Atty. Leila M. De Lima, the Court directed respondent De Lima to submit her comment to the complaint-affidavit for disbarment filed by petitioner within 10 days from notice of the Court’s resolution,” the SC said.

Perito cited as evidence De Lima’s publicly admitting the relationship with Dayan in a television interview aired last November 14.

A similar disbarment complaint against De Lima was filed before the SC by the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) and former National Bureau of Investigation deputy directors Reynaldo Esmeralda and Ruel Lasala, who were also complainants in the drug trafficking and graft charges against her at the Department of Justice.

The complainants accused De Lima of gross immorality and violating the Lawyers Oath and the Code of Professional Responsibility.

Last 2012, Perito also filed disbarment complaint against De Lima for her alleged defiance in following an SC temporary restraining order issued in November 2011 when she stopped former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her husband Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo from leaving the country to seek medical treatment.