THE Muntinlupa city regional trial court is expected to decide on the remaining drug case filed against former senator Leila de Lima next month.
Lawyer Boni Tacardon, one of De Lima’s legal counsels, said Muntinlupa City RTC Branch 206 Presiding Judge Gener Gito is set to rule on the demurrer to evidence they filed last March asking the court to junk the third and last case against the former lawmaker.
“The case is set on June 24. Expected issuance of the resolution by then,” Tacardon told reporters on Monday when sought for an update on the case.
In her 52-page demurrer, De Lima’s camp had asked Gito to junk the last drug case against her, saying the prosecution failed to present evidence to prove her guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
“This Demurrer to Evidence seeks the dismissal of the charge against herein Accused without further need of presentation of her evidence on the ground that based on the prosecution’s testimonial and documentary evidence duly admitted by the Honorable Court, the prosecution has not only failed to present sufficient evidence that would sustain a judgment of conviction beyond reasonable doubt, it has more so failed to present strong evidence of the accused’s guilt,” the petition read, referring to the court’s grant of her bail petition in November 2023 that allowed her to regain provisional liberty after spending almost seven years in detention.
In his order allowing the former secretary of the Department of Justice (DOJ) to post bail last year, Gito pointed to the lack of substantial evidence presented by the prosecution, noting that De Lima’s guilt was not sufficiently established.
Gito also said the prosecution’s witnesses were not able to establish that there was conspiracy among the accused to commit illegal drugs trading.
De Lima has won two of the three drug cases lodged against her before two other branches of the Muntinlupa RTC, one through demurrer of evidence in February 2021 and the other by a ruling of lack of merit in May last year.
The third and last case being heard by Gito’s sala is in relation to allegations that De Lima accepted bribe money from convicted drug lords at the New Bilibid Prison during her term as justice secretary to help finance her senatorial campaign.
De Lima, in her demurrer plea, said many of the prosecution’s witnesses have already recanted their allegations against her, including former Bureau of Corrections chief Rafael Ragos and most of the Bilibid inmates who earlier linked her to the illegal drugs trade.
The other witnesses who previously recanted or informed the court of their decision to withdraw their testimonies against De Lima include high-profile Bilibid inmates German Agojo, Tomas Donina, Jaime Patcho, Peter Co, Engelbert Durano, Jerry Pepino, Hans Anton Tan, Nonito Arile and Rodolfo Magleo, self-confessed drug lord Kerwin Espinosa, bodyguard Ronnie Dayan, and retired police general Jerry Valeroso.
De Lima has repeatedly denied any link to the illegal drugs trade adding, insisting that she was a victim of persecution after she earned the ire of then president Rodrigo Duterte due to her opposition to his administration’s human rights abuses and killings associated with the drug war.
