Government prosecutors said they will study the decision of a Muntinlupa court which acquitted former senator Leila de Lima in her last remaining drug case on June 24.
The Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 206, in a decision dated June 3, granted De Lima’s demurrer to evidence, which is equivalent to an acquittal, filed on March 20 this year in case 17-167.
Former senator Leila de Lima celebrating with her supporters at the Muntinlupa Hall of Justice on June 24 after a court acquitted her in the last remaining drug case. (Jonathan Hicap)
Prosecutor Darwin Cañete and Chief Provincial Prosecutor of Bataan Ramoncito Bienvenido Ocampo Jr. talking to the media after the promulgation on June 24 (Jonathan Hicap)
It was one of the three cases filed by the Department of Justice (DOJ) in February 2017 during the time of President Rodrigo Duterte.
“Thus, assessing the totality of the evidence presented by the prosecution, the Court is of the resolve and so holds that the prosecution was not able to prove the guilt of all the accused beyond reasonable doubt,” Presiding Judge Gener Gito wrote in the decision promulgated during a hearing attended by De Lima on June 24.
In the decision, the court acquitted De Lima and her four co-accused in the case for conspiracy to commit illegal drug trading.
“Wherefore, for failure of the Prosecution to prove the guilt of all the accused beyond reasonable doubt, the respective Demurrer to Evidence filed by the accused are granted. Thus, Leila M. De Lima, Franklin Jesus B. Bucayu, Ronnie Palisoc Dayan, Joenel Tan Sanchez and Jose Adrian Tiamson Dera are acquitted of the charge against them,” the court’s decision read.
In case 17-167, the DOJ charged that between March 2013 and May 2015, De Lima, Bucayu, Dayan, Sanchez and Dera used inmates at the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa to sell and trade dangerous drugs using mobile phones and other electronic devices, and allegedly got the proceeds amounting to P70 million.
Ramoncito Bienvenido Ocampo Jr., chief provincial prosecutor of Bataan, said on June 24 that they will decide on their next action after getting a full copy of the decision.
Quoting Gito, Ocampo said, “They [accused] may now enjoy their unmitigated freedom.”
“But we have not yet read the decision so we are not discounting the possibility of exhausting all proper legal remedies,” he said.
Ocampo will convene the members of the panel of prosecutors involved in the De Lima case “to discuss whether or not we will file a motion for reconsideration or any other legal remedies that will be warranted under the circumstances.”
“We are also very happy for the good senator because once upon a time she was our former boss. And we don’t lose our respect even though we are on the other side of the fence,” said Ocampo.
Prosecutor Darwin Cañete said, “We have no animosity against the good senator. We just did our job.”
De Lima celebrated her victory with supporters at the Muntinlupa Hall of Justice, saying, “With the grant of our demurrer to evidence, which is tantamount to acquittal, this means I am completely free, and vindicated."
All the three drug cases filed by the Department of Justice (DOJ) in 2017 under the Duterte administration have been dismissed. The two other cases were junked by Muntinlupa courts in 2021 and 2023.
In the three cases, the DOJ originally charged De Lima and others of illegal drug trading, but it later changed it to conspiracy to commit illegal drug trading.