REP. Leila de Lima (PL, Mamamayang Liberal) on Monday night assailed the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) move to appeal the Muntinlupa City Regional Trial Court’s June 27 decision acquitting her of drug-related charges, calling “infuriating.”
“I don’t understand what the prosecution is trying to do! Put me in triple jeopardy after nearly seven years in unjust detention?” the former senator said in a statement, decrying the government’s attempt to subject her to the same drug charges for the third time.
“Hindi na lang katawa-tawa ang ginagawa nila, nakakagalit na (What they’re doing is no longer funny, it’s infuriating),” said De Lima, a staunch critic of the Duterte administration’s bloody war on drugs.
The Muntinlupa City RTC Branch 204 earlier cleared De Lima and her co-accused Ronnie Dayan of the charges, more than a month after the Court of Appeals remanded the case and ordered Presiding Judge Joseph Abraham Alcantara to write a new decision.
The CA said the earlier decision did not contain details to justify her acquittal.
In acquitting De Lima and Dayan, the trial court ruled that the prosecution failed to establish that they conspired beyond reasonable doubt, particularly after former Bureau of Corrections Officer-in-Charge Rafael Ragos recanted his testimony linking them to the illegal drugs trade inside the facility.
De Lima said then that her case is the only case in the country that needed another promulgation of judgment of acquittal.
Before his recantation, Ragos had claimed that he delivered P10 million to De Lima’s house in Parañaque in November and December 2012. He alleged that the money came from the proceeds of the illegal drugs trade inside the BuCor and would be used purportedly to fund De Lima’s senatorial run.
