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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider De Lima: Witnesses silenced to stop them from exposing truth on her case?

De Lima: Witnesses silenced to stop them from exposing truth on her case?

Published Aug 1, 2021 01:15 pm

Detained Senator Leila De Lima on Sunday said she extremely believes that the prosecution witnesses who stood to testify against her were purposefully exterminated to silence them from exposing the truth about her drug case.

De Lima made the remark following the death of Vicente Sy, a high-profile inmate in the New Bilibid Prison (NBP), who was one of the witnesses tapped by the Department of Justice (DOJ) against her.

"As I've said several times before, it's not remote that any, some, if not all, of these prosecution witnesses who were either coerced, threatened, bribed or blackmailed to lie about my alleged drug links would be targeted for extermination in order to permanently silence them from exposing the truth about my cases," De Lima said in a statement.

According to De Lima, Sy bluntly admitted on cross examination, and unreversed on re-direct examination, that he had no personal knowledge of the accusations against her, that he did not know her and that he never gave money, directly or indirectly to her.

Sy, who reportedly died of cardiac arrest, is the second convict witness on De Lima's drug case who died. The first was Jaybee Sebastian, who allegedly died due to COVID-19.

"I believe and maintain, to this day, that it was a case of deliberate killing in order to block his then impending retraction of his affidavit falsely implicating me in the Bilibid drug trade," she said.

De Lima maintained she has no ill will against Vicente Sy even after almost four years and a half of unjust detention.

"I have no ill will against Vicente Sy and, as a human being, I commiserate with his bereaved family. At least, he didn’t lie about not knowing me and not giving me money," she said.

"His sin against me, if any, pales in comparison to the sin of those who used him and his fellow inmates to bring down an innocent woman and public servant," added the senator.

She said this beleaguering trend of witnesses dying still does not give her comfort.

"As they say, dead men tell no tales. And it appears that my persecutors are sticking to the malevolent wisdom of this saying. As if the truth can be eternally buried or is not inevitable. As if there's no day of reckoning," she lamented.

De Lima said she could not help but wonder who among all the other witnesses who testified against her would be the next one to be exterminated.

"Sino kaya ang isusunod nila (Who's going to be their next target)?" she said.

Related Tags

drug case Leila de Lima BIlibid
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