Swift justice: Who’s the judge who ordered arrest?

MANILA, Philippines - Of the three women judges handling the drug-related cases of Sen. Leila de Lima, Muntinlupa City Regional Trial Court Branch 204 Judge Juanita Guerrero is the one who has a history with the senator.

In 2011, Guerrero acquitted two of the “Alabang Boys,” Jorge Joseph and Richard Brodett.

Joseph and Brodett were arrested together with Joseph Tecson in September 2008 by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) for drug possession and sale during a drug sting. Guerrero cited “lapses” in PDEA’s handling of evidence in acquitting the defendants.

De Lima, who was then justice secretary, said Guerrero “committed a mistake in her decision,” adding there was a gross misappreciation of the supposed lapses.

Guerrero also granted the request for release of convicted murderer Rolito Go, who was sentenced to a life term in 1993 for the road rage killing of De La Salle University student Eldon Maguan in San Juan City in 1991.

She granted Go’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus in 2014 on the argument that he already served his full sentence based on a revised computation. De Lima contested the ruling, but the Supreme Court affirmed Guerrero’s decision.

Guerrero is now among three women judges who will hear De Lima’s drug-related case. She issued an arrest warrant against De Lima on Thursday, four days after the case was raffled to her court on Monday.

Included in the warrant are Ronnie Dayan, De Lima’s former bodyguard and lover, and National Bureau of Investigation deputy director Rafael Marcos Ragos.

Dayan was also arrested last Thursday, while Ragos remains at large.

Other judges handling De Lima’s cases are Muntinlupa City RTC Branch 205 Judge Amelia Fabros-Corpus and Branch 206 Judge Patria Manalastas-de Leon.

Corpus reset the hearing on De Lima’s motion to quash the case against her on March 10. De Leon reset the hearing for the senator’s similar motion on March 3.