DOJ: We will withdraw opposition to De Lima acquittal

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This raises the question: Why did the prosecutors file that MR in the first place?

Well, apparently the bosses of the Department of Justice (DOJ) will no longer pursue the one drug against charge Mamamayang Liberal Representative Leila de Lima, which she had been acquitted of to begin with.

“We did talk and agree to withdraw the MR (motion for reconsideration) filed by the trial prosecutors on the grounds of double jeopardy,” Prosecutor General Richard Fadullon, the head of the prosecutors, told Rappler in a message.

Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin “Boying” Remulla answered “yes” when asked by Rappler to confirm the agreement with Fadullon to seek the dismissal of the case, once and for all.

This raises the question: Why did the prosecutors file that MR in the first place? Although the National Prosecution Service (NPS) is independent, it is an attached agency of the DOJ and traditionally gives courtesy to the justice secretary as the overall boss.

“I learned about it through my staff whom they informed, after the Panel of Prosecutors had already filed it because apparently it was already the deadline for the filing,” Fadullon told Rappler when asked if he was not aware of the motion’s filing.

“Confirmed: Walang imprimatur ng DOJ leadership ang (the DOJ leadership did not give imprimatur to the) brazen actions of the Panel of Prosecutors in further persecuting [De Lima] and violating her constitutional right against double jeopardy,” Dino de Leon, one of De Lima’s lawyers, said on X.

In a statement on Wednesday, De Lima called on the DOJ to probe the prosecutors and sanction them.

“Our own assessment of the situation reflects the facts stated by SOJ Remulla. The panel of prosecutors, or at least some of them, are acting on the basis of a political agenda. They have been doing so for the past 7 years. Insofar as my case is concerned, they still answer to the Duterte cabal, like many in the government who are still loyal to FPRRD (former president Rodrigo Roa Duterte),” the lawmaker said.

On July 14, a panel of prosecutors filed a motion for reconsideration on the latest acquittal of De Lima from the Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court. It did not bear the signature of Fadullon.

It all began when the Court of Appeals (CA) decided the first appeal on that acquittal, and decided to remand the case back to the lower court to write another decision. Heeding the CA’s order, the RTC acquitted De Lima once again in June in a new ruling.

After that, the prosecutors filed another MR before the the lower court. The De Lima camp decried this as a case of “triple jeopardy.”

“These renegade prosecutors must be forthwith disciplined and be held liable for abuse of processes and twisting the law for political reasons,” De Leon said.

De Lima’s cases suffered a complicated turn when the prosecutors did not let go of her acquittal in the drug cases.

In total, the lawmaker faced three charges of conspiracy to commit illegal drug trading, all filed under former president Rodrigo Duterte. The allegation was as justice secretary, she induced New Bilibid Prison (NBP) inmates to trade drugs so that she can raise funds for her senatorial campaign in 2016, which she won. After seven years of detention, and multiple changes in judges, De Lima first got out on bail in 2023.

By 2024, she had been acquitted of all three charges.

The case being activated by the panel of prosecutors is the one where their star witness was supposed to be former Bureau of Corrections chief Rafael Ragos. But Ragos recanted even before Duterte finished his term, claiming he was pressured and threatened to invent a story against De Lima.

When Muntinlupa City RTC Branch 204 Presiding Judge Abraham Joseph Alcantara acquitted De Lima on that charge, prosecutors filed the first MR. The lower court denied the MR, and affirmed its acquittal of De Lima.

But the fight did not stop there because the Office of the Solicitor General, then under Duterte-era justice secretary Menardo Guevarra, filed a petition for certiorari with the CA to challenge the RTC ruling.

This was the petition that triggered the remanding, causing Alcantara to re-acquit De Lima and write another court decision clearing the lawmaker in the drug case.

There is a constitutional right against double jeopardy, which means that generally, someone who had been acquitted cannot be subjected to another trial unless there’s a compelling case of mistrial or grave abuse of discretion. In this case, prosecutors are saying that the trial court judge put so much weight on Ragos’ recantation.

De Lima’s camp believes this is not a compelling argument to reopen a closed case. – Rappler.com