By Hannah Torregoza
Detained Senator Leila de Lima on Thursday rejected the reinstatement of Rafael Ragos as National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) deputy director, saying it is a best example of how President Rodrigo Duterte uses privileges and rewards for perjured witnesses to testify against her.
Senator Leila de Lima (REUTERS / MANILA BULLETIN)
Ragos had taken the witness stand to testify against the senator on the alleged proliferation of illegal drugs inside the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) when she was then the Department of Justice (DOJ) secretary.
De Lima had earlier expressed belief that the former officer-in-charge of the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) would be rewarded in exchange for his testimony he that handed millions worth of drug money to Ronnie Dayan in her house as he had already struck a deal with President Rodrigo Duterte through former justice secretary Vitaliano Aguirre III.
“The best example of how Duterte has used privileges and rewards on perjured witnesses to testify against me is none other than NBI official Rafael Ragos. Despite revelations linking him to corruption while he was BuCor-OIC, Ragos was reportedly ordered reinstated recently by Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra to his old office at the NBI as Deputy Director, after hibernating inside Persida Acosta’s PAO office for months,” De Lima said in a statement.
“Ragos knows that his claim, in his testimonies before the House of Representatives, the RTC (regional trial court) and the Senate, of alleged delivery of money to my residence on two occasions is a BIG LIE. But he knows also, as he has reportedly bragged, that his perjured testimony is a vital thread in this administration’s fabricated tapestry,” the opposition senator further said.
De Lima believes Ragos has the gall to ask to be reinstated precisely because he was able to deliver on his side of the deal with Aguirre.
“Kaya malakas ang loob ni Ragos na hingin kay Duterte na ibalik siya bilang NBI Deputy Director dahil na rin sa kanilang napagkasunduan ni dating Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II na ibabalik siya sa posisyon at hindi siya kakasuhan kapalit ng mga kasinungalingan niya laban sa akin (That’s why he is presumptuous enough to think he can ask Duterte to reinstate him as NBI deputy director – it’s because of the deal he struck with former justice secretary Aguirre, who promised he will be returned to his original position and that he will not be charged in exchange for the lies he said about me),” the senator added.
De Lima said she knew that from the time the DOJ withdrew Ragos’ name from the information filed in court in exchange for a belated and newly-embellished affidavit, it was already a given that he successfully struck a deal with Duterte through Aguirre: “now he is reaping his reward.”
“Notwithstanding the discovery of his money-making ventures as OIC-BuCor, Ragos was given immunity and retained in NBI, drawing salary and benefits as NBI official and benefits from the witness protection program (WPP) and now, he is reinstated to his previous post as Deputy Director,” she said.
De Lima said she is certain honest NBI officials and agents also do not want Ragos returning to the agency.
“I am sure the old-timers and honest officials and agents at the NBI don’t like having Ragos around their office once again. In the first place, the NBI was adamant in its position that Ragos should be included in the Information originally filed against us, and they protested his eventual exclusion as an accused in the fabricated drug charges filed against me,” she said.
“This is how desperate my persecutors are. They don’t mind striking deals with convicted felons and other rotten characters like Ragos just to ensure my conviction,” she said.
De Lima lamented that the NBI, as one of the country’s premier law enforcement agencies, deserves better than to be another victim of Duterte’s policy of recycling discredited and corrupt public officials.