A Muntinlupa court denied the motion for reconsideration filed by government prosecutors aiming to overturn the acquittal of former senator Leila de Lima in her last drug case filed in 2017 during the Duterte administration.
In a decision dated Aug. 7, Presiding Judge Gener Gito of the Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 206 ruled “the Motion for Consideration is denied.”
Former senator Leila de Lima celebrates at the Muntinlupa Hall of Justice on June 24 this year after being acquitted in her last drug case (Jonathan Hicap)
Former senator Leila de Lima at the Muntinlupa Hall of Justice on June 24 this year (Jonathan Hicap)
The court's decision released on June 24 this year (Jonathan Hicap)
After more than seven years, De Lima was acquitted by the court in case 17-167, which accused her of conspiracy to commit illegal drug trading.
Last June 24, the court acquitted her by granting her demurrer to evidence filed on March 20 this year. It was one of the three drug cases filed by the Department of Justice (DOJ) against De Lima in 2017. The two other cases were dismissed in 2021 and 2023.
In the decision, the court acquitted De Lima and her four co-accused.
“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 alleged that between March 2013 and May 2015, De Lima, former Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) director Franklin Jesus Bucayu, Ronnie Dayan, Joenel Sanchez and Jose Adrian 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.
Government prosecutors filed a motion for reconsideration to overturn the decision but it was denied by the Muntinlupa court.
In its latest decision, the court ruled, “The dismissal of a criminal case through the avenue of demurrer to evidence is tantamount to acquittal. Thus, such order of the court cannot be appealed as it will place the accused to double jeopardy.”
“The only way to vacate the judgement of acquittal is by showing that the court which granted the demurrer to evidence committed grave abuse of discretion. If the Court is to sum up the arguments of the prosecution, it only says that the prosecution presented sufficient evidence to prove guilt of the accused beyond reasonable which the Court finds otherwise,” it added.
“The prosecution, in its Motion for Reconsideration did not even ascribe grave abuse of discretion on the part of the Court. It did not cite any instance in the Court's Order that in having such kind of conclusion, the Court encroached into the area of grave abuse of discretion. Having failed to cite any instance of grave abuse of discretion on the part of the Court, which is the only thoroughfare to vacating a judgement of acquittal, there is therefore no reason for this Court to reconsider its Order dated July 19, 2024,” the court ruled.