Opposition Senator Leila de Lima on Sunday, June 5 maintained that the dismissal of the illegal drug case filed by the Department of Justice (DOJ) against Kerwin Espinosa only emphasized that she is innocent from all the trumped-up drug charges filed against her.

De Lima, a vocal critic of the Duterte administration, made the statement after the Makati Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 64 denied the motion for reconsideration that the prosecution had filed against Espinosa.

“Again, the court in Espinosa's case only reiterated that the testimony of Espinosa before the Senate cannot be relied upon as evidence even against Espinosa himself. In the first place, Espinosa has already recanted his Senate testimony,” de Lima said in a statement.

“So, insofar, as I am concerned, with the court's ruling and Espinosa's recantation, Espinosa's Senate testimony has already been conclusively proven to be unreliable as evidence against me,” she said.

The former justice secretary said that from the very start, even the DOJ desisted from including the Espinosa case in the charges they filed against her because they realized that Espinosa’s narration at the Senate would not make the cut “even in a Duterte-controlled court setting.”

It may be recalled that Espinosa falsely testified in Senate hearings that De Lima was involved in illegal drug trade as then DOJ chief, but he already recanted his previous allegations and said he had no dealings with de Lima in a counter-affidavit filed at the DOJ on April 28 this year.

The prosecution had relied on the testimony of Marcelo Adorco who previously presented himself as Espinosa’s bodyguard and driver and implicated the latter and several personalities in the illegal drug trade.

Adorco, however, has also recanted all his allegations claiming he made his previous affidavits against Espinosa because he feared for his life.

Notably, in Adorco’s counter-affidavit filed at the DOJ last August 28, 2020, he also denied personally knowing de Lima and that he had no personal knowledge about the alleged meeting of de Lima and Espinosa in Baguio City.

De Lima maintained that Espinosa's Senate testimony was a purely fabricated story forced upon both Espinosa and Ronnie Dayan, her former aide and co-accused in one of the two remaining drug cases against her.

“The fact that all of this is coming out as Duterte's term ends indicates that the Duterte administration's cases against me are purely manufactured and fabricated in order to persecute, destroy, and silence me,” she said.

Aside from Espinosa, Dayan and former Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) Officer-in-Charge Rafael Ragos also recanted their allegations against De Lima, claiming they too have been coerced and threatened by state agents and key government officials of the Duterte administration.