An organization of lawyers has demanded accountability for those who were behind the reported wrongful prosecution of detained Sen. Leila M. De Lima on alleged fabricated illegal drugs charges.
“Those who masterminded, goaded and enabled this brazen injustice must be held accountable in some way in time lest these outrages be repeated,” National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL) President Edre U. Olalia said in a statement.
Olalia made the call after self-confessed drug lord Rolan “Kerwin” Espinosa and former National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Deputy Director for Intelligence Rafael Marcos Z. Ragos recanted their respective testimonies against De Lima.
“In general though, the DOJ (Department of Justice) and the courts must take this overdue rectifications into full and proper consideration and accord the corresponding evidentiary value in her pending cases,” Olalia said.
He said the NUPL will continue to call for the release of De Lima but “will leave it to her handling lawyers to go into the specific legal implication of such recantations as they are most competent and conversant to weigh in on this point.”
He alleged that “the legal and judicial process is being deliberately weaponized by the State and its agents for nefarious political reasons by unscrupulously constructing false narratives and peddling manufactured evidence.”
“This undermines the so-called rule of law and gnaws at the integrity of our institutions,” he lamented.
“It is extremely lamentable and distressing that one can just be casually thrown in jail for years by using the whole State apparatus to silence critics and fiscalizers like Sen. Leila de Lima,” he added.
De Lima, who is currently detained at the Custodial Center of the Philippine National Police (PNP) headquarters in Camp Crame, Quezon City, is facing drug charges before the Muntinlupa City Regional Trial Court (RTC) for her alleged involvement in the proliferation of the narcotics trade at the New Bilibid Prison (NBP).
After the recantations of the testimonies by the two witnesses, several groups, lawyers, legislators, and politicians called for De Lima’s release.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) said the recantations of the testimonies of the two witnesses will not affect the cases filed against De Lima, as it stressed that it will leave to the court the evaluation of the retracted testimonies.