The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
Senator Leila M. de Lima, who has been detained since 2017, wrote Justice Secretary Menardo I. Guevarra asking him to review the illegal drugs cases filed against her after former Bureau of Corrections acting chief Rafael Marcos Z. Ragos and self-confessed drug lord Erwin Espinosa recanted their testimonies against the senator.
De Lima said in a letter to Guevarra dated May 5, 2022: “In light of this statement of Ragos, there is a need for the DOJ (Department of Justice) to review the drug cases it filed against me to determine if indeed these were prosecuted by the Panel of Prosecutors even after being told by Ragos that his testimony and all his allegations against me ‘are all lies.”
De Lima attached the April 30, 2022 affidavit of Ragos who recanted his testimonies against her including his statement that he delivered to De Lima on two occasions drug money totaling P10 million allegedly coming from drug lord Peter Co who is incarcerated at the New Bilibid Prison (NBP).
“If upon review, it is determined that Ragos’ statements are true, then all the cases against me should be immediately withdrawn by the DOJ in order to prevent a further miscarriage of justice where, even after these revelations indicating prosecutorial misconduct amounting to the criminal offense of subornation of perjury, the DOJ will still continue prosecuting said cases,” the senator said.
De Lima, who has been detained at the Custodial Center of the Philippine National Police (PNP) in Camp Crame, Quezon City, is facing drug charges with the regional trial court (RTC) in Muntinlupa City over her alleged involvement in the proliferation of the illegal drugs trading at the NBP.
De Lima told Guevarra, “This review should include the other case as well (Criminal Case No. 17-167) because if the Panel of Prosecutors that handles both cases are capable of suborning false testimony in one case, then nothing prevents them from doing the same in the other cases.”
De Lima said the DOJ should look into “the glaring facts in these cases which earlier on indicated a premeditated conspiracy among DOJ and other high government officials to fabricate drug cases against me.”
She said the recantation done by Rolan “Kerwin” Espina of the testimonies against her should also be looked into by the DOJ.
At the same time, De Lima said the DOJ should probe former Justice Secretary Vitaliano N. Aguirre II over the “trial by publicity” he made before the House of Representatives and Senate hearings as well as “his coercion of DOJ employees to admit falsely that they received money and held bank accounts for her benefit.”
She said the DOJ should review President Duterte’s “highly prejudicial and preemptive” statements like his pronouncement that he will “personally destroy me and make sure that I rot in jail.”
De Lima lamented that those given favorable treatment, even though they admitted involvement in the Bilibid drug trade during the House hearings and in court, were “not included as co-accused in the cases against me, despite the panel of prosecutors’ steadfast representation before the courts that none of them are being presented as state witnesses or were granted immunity.”
She said the riot that happened at the Bilibid in September 2016 was staged and meant to convince several inmates to testify against her.
That the riot resulted in “the near mortal stabbing of Jaybee Sebastian, Peter Co, and Vicente Sy, and the death of Tony Co just days before Sebastian, Co and Sy were finally ‘convinced’ to testify in the House hearing.”