Former senator Leila de Lima has asked a Muntinlupa court to dismiss one of her two remaining drug cases or grant bail for her provisional liberty.
De Lima, through her lawyer, filed a supplemental omnibus motion on Feb. 23 with the Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court Branch 204, which is handling Case No. 17-165, accusing De Lima and Ronnie Dayan of conspiracy to commit illegal drug trading allegedly during her time as justice secretary.
The case accused De Lima of getting P10 million in 2012, which supposedly came from the illegal drug trade at the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) in Muntinlupa.
In her motion, De Lima asked the court for the “outright dismissal” of the case, her immediate release from detention, or granting her bail.
She filed the motion in light of the recantation of former Bureau of Corrections officer-in-charge Rafael Ragos, the government’s key witness in the case.
In his original affidavits and testimonies, Ragos claimed that he delivered P10 million to De Lima’s house in Paranaque: P5 million in November 2012 and P5 million in December 2012.
In an affidavit he executed on April 30, 2022, Ragos recanted all his statements and exonerated De Lima and Dayan. He also appeared in the Muntinlupa court to affirm his recantation, saying that the two accused are innocent of the charges.
He said that he was coerced by then justice secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II into making affidavits and testifying against De Lima. Aguirre denied Ragos’ statements last year.
Ragos previously said that he made up the lies for fear of his life, his family and career.
De Lima has been in detention for six years. On Feb. 17, 2017, the Department of Justice (DOJ) under Aguirre filed three cases of illegal drug trading against De Lima and others. The charges were later changed to conspiracy to commit illegal drug trading.
One of the three cases was dismissed by a Muntinlupa court in February 2021. Two are still pending.
De Lima was detained based on a warrant of arrest issued by the first judge that handled Case No. 17-165. She surrendered to the police on Feb. 24, 2017 and has since been detained at the Philippine National Police (PNP) Custodial Center in Camp Crame.
Motion
In her motion, De Lima said that based on Ragos’ retraction, the case should be dismissed or that court should grant her bail at the least.
“Given her innocence, as now plainly revealed in Ragos's 30 April 2022 Affidavit, freely and voluntarily executed, affirmed in open court and subjected to, and hurdled, the crucibles of lengthy cross examination, accused De Lima must now be spared from further inconvenience, expense, pain, anxiety and the ignominy of prolonged trial proceedings through outright dismissal of the instant case. She has suffered enough, not the least of all barely surviving a hostage-taking incident that almost cost her life,” according to her motion.
She added, “At the very least, herein Accused should be granted her constitutional right to bail in light of the retraction of the only testimony offered by the Prosecution that supposedly directly links her to the offense charged.”
De Lima added, “With Ragos's retraction, not only is the prosecution's evidence not strong enough to sustain a denial of the right to bail in a capital offense, it has no evidence at all to sustain a conviction of guilt beyond reasonable doubt.”
“The retraction of Prosecution star witness Rafael Ragas is only one of the latest series of retractions and admissions of witnesses used by former Sec. Aguirre or his agents that they were, one way or another, coerced into testifying falsely against herein Accused. Six years is indeed a long time to wait to start the process of restoring a reputation that was the subject of unrelentless, malicious attacks that culminated in the filing of manufactured criminal charges. The least that accused De Lima could ask for is that her vindication might finally begin with the restoration of her freedom,” she said.
According to her, “Given the foregoing, the dismissal of the instant case or, in the interim or alternative, the grant of bail is most warranted, in the paramount interest of justice.”