MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Leila de Lima filed a motion for bail before the Muntinlupa court handling the drug case against her, the second time she is moving for provisional liberty by saying evidence against her is weak.
De Lima, through her lawyer, filed a Motion for Bail before the Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court Branch 205 where a drug case she is facing with co-accused Ronnie Dayan remains pending.
Related Stories
This is the second case she is facing at the same court. Like her previously filed motion at a different case, she also asserted that evidence against her is weak and, “on the contrary, the record is replete with evidence presented by the Prosecution itself that support the innocence of herein Accused De Lima.”
De Lima argued that the testimonies of prosecution witnesses are hearsay and have no evidentiary value.
Initially, De Lima is facing a drug trading case with her former aide Ronnie Dayan and Rafael Ragos, former officer-in-charge of the Bureau of Corrections. But the Information was later amended to attempt or conspiracy to commit illegal drug trading, while Ragos was dropped as accused.
Meanwhile, Ragos became a prosecution witness, but De Lima argued that he lacks credibility and his testimony “suffers from clear and irreconcilable inconsistencies with several other pleadings that he has made throughout the various stages of the case.”
“It is important to note that in the original affidavit of Ragos, the latter never mentioned the delivery of money to Accused De Lima. To recall, this allegation only cropped up after Ragos was detained and prior to amendment of the Original Information, which resulted in his removal as accused in the case,” the motion read.
Meanwhile, De Lima said that the testimony of former chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, and now Baguio City Major Benjamin Magalong only detailed the planning stages of “Oplan Galugad.” This was the raid in the Bilibid, which De Lima said, Magalong deemed as successful.
“General Magalong actually absolved Accused De Lima from any links to the illegal drug trade. He and his team in the PNP CIDG have investigated the drug operations inside the New Bilibid Prison and he stated on record that there was never an integrity issue against then Secretary of Justice Leila De Lima,” the motion read.
“Ultimately, there is but one question facing the Honorable Court: is the evidence of guilt against Accused De Lima strong? It is as simple as the answer to it is clear: it is not,” the motion read.
“Certainly, the granting of bail to Accused De Lima will result in upholding her constitutional presumption of innocence, recognizing her right to due process,” it added.