De Lima inhibits self from Susano investigation

MANILA, Philippines - Justice Secretary Leila de Lima will inhibit herself from the investigation into losing Quezon City mayoralty bet Mary Ann Susano’s possession of a compact flash (CF) card because the former lawmaker was her client when she was an election lawyer.

Speaking to reporters, De Lima said she would assign the case to an undersecretary if it reaches her office.

Former justice secretary Alberto Agra said Susano could be held liable for mere possession of a CF card.

Susano had presented the CF cards during an inquiry at the House of Representatives to show that fraud took place in the May 10 elections.

Agra passed on the probe to De Lima following a stalemate with the refusal of the camp of Susano to surrender the CF cards to the Department of Justice (DOJ).

In the last case conference on June 28, Susano’s lawyer only submitted a certificate from the local election office showing that no CF card was missing in the precinct where her CF card supposedly came from.

However, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) main office had reported that some CF cards were missing in the same precinct.

The DOJ investigation is aimed at coming up with a concrete recommendation as to who could be held liable for Susano’s possession of the CF card.

As for the “Hello, Nico” case, agents of the National Bureau of Investigation have yet to conclude their initial investigation since they were still awaiting response from the US government on their request for tracing of the source of the conversation uploaded on the Internet.

The request was made through a letter sent to the US embassy under the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty.

The controversy involves the alleged wiretapped phone conversation between then Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno and Comelec Commissioner Nicodemo Ferrer about election results.