Mamamayang Liberal (ML) Party-List Rep. Leila de Lima on Thursday, August 14, asked the Department of Justice (DOJ) to conduct an administrative investigation against 10 prosecutors who sought the reversal of her court acquittal on illegal drugs charges.

Through lawyer Dino De Leon, De Lima said the 10 prosecutors should be removed, have their benefits forfeited, and banned permanently from any government post because of “their attitude.”

De Leon said it is dangerous to the Filipino people when prosecutors allow themselves to be used and weaponize the justice system to silence duly elected leaders and even the citizens.

He was at the DOJ and submitted a letter to Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin C. Remulla.

Based on the letter, sought to be investigated were Provincial Prosecutor Ramoncito Benvenido T. Ocampo Jr.; City Prosecutors Blas Antonio M. Tuliao and Laurence Joel M. Taliping; Deputy City Prosecutors Leilia R. Llanes, Evangeline Viudez-Canobas, and Darwin G. Canete; Senior Assistant City Prosecutors Rudy B. Ricamora Jr., John Quincy D. Carandang, and Alfred Joseph T. Jamora; and Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Wendell P. Bendoval.

“This is just a first step in a series of cases that we intend to file against those people who authored this greatest frame-up in Philippine history,” De Leon said.

Later, he disclosed that they may file cases against the prosecutors before the Office of the Ombudsman.

Last July 23, the prosecutors filed before the Muntinlupa City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 204 a motion to withdraw their plea to reconsider the June 27 decision that acquitted De Lima of illegal drugs charges.

In their motion to withdraw, the prosecutors said “after consultation and upon instructions of the Honorable Prosecutor General, most respectfully move for the withdrawal of the Motion for Reconsideration dated 14 July 2025 that was filed on the same date.”

But De Leon said the withdrawal does not cancel the fact that Leila de Lima was persecuted and jailed for almost seven years for criticizing the violent war on illegal drugs.

“There must be a reckoning for those who abused their authority, manipulated the prosecutorial process, and orchestrated this flagrant perversion of the law,” De Lima’s letter stated.

She lamented that “the cases against me were not built on evidence, but on coercion and lies, orchestrated within the Department of Justice itself during the time of President Rodrigo Duterte,” she said.

She pointed out that while she has been acquitted of the four drugs charges, the misconduct did not end.

She reminded that a judgment of acquittal is “final and executory.”

At the same time, De Lima said that while the motion for reconsideration of the judgment of acquittal was filed without the approval of the high officials of the DOJ, the filing only highlights the prosecutors “roque and abusive conduct.”

“Their persistence was not a simple error of judgment; it was a malicious attempt to prolong my ordeal and subvert the rule of law,” she also said.