MANILA, Philippines — Leila de Lima accused government prosecutors of “blocking the truth” as it moved to prevent Rafael Ragos, one of their key witnesses in one of the drug cases against the former senator, from taking the witness stand anew to reaffirm his recantation of his testimony against the staunch critic of former President Rodrigo Duterte.
“They’re blocking the TRUTH. A gross distortion of DOJ’s (Department of Justice) mandate,” De Lima said Saturday in a series of tweets where she called the prosecution’s opposition to Ragos’ return to the witness stand “deplorable.”
I don't understand why the Prosecution is opposing the court appearance anew of Ragos (a prosecution witness himself) for the purpose of affirming the recantation of his previous false and coerced testimonies. Deplorable.
— Leila de Lima (@AttyLeiladeLima) October 1, 2022
Quoting a 1974 Supreme Court decision, De Lima said a prosecutor’s “noble task is to prosecute only the guilty and to protect the innocent.”
Government lawyers filed an appeal Thursday night before the Muntinlupa court to reconsider its decision to allow the former Bureau of Corrections official to testify on his recantation, according to the legal teams of Ragos and De Lima.
The court gave De Lima five days to comment on the prosecution’s motion for reconsideration.
Ragos’ lawyer moved to suppress and expunge all his previous affidavits in light of his recantation, but this was not acted on by the court due to the prosecution’s opposition to him taking the witness stand.
This development has left Ragos, the former officer-in-charge at the Bureau of Corrections, fearing for his security, his lawyer Michael Christopher De Castro said. — Xave Gregorio