MANILA — On her sixth year under detention, former Senator Leila de Lima has asked a Muntinlupa court to dismiss one of the 2 pending drug cases against her, after former Bureau of Corrections OIC Rafael Ragos completed his testimony in court taking back all the allegations against her.

In a 32-page motion, De Lima, through her lawyer Teddy Esteban Rigoroso, urged the Muntinlupa City Regional Trial Court Branch 204 to dismiss the case due to lack of evidence, and to order the release of De Lima and her co-accused Ronnie Dayan.

In the alternative, she asked the court to grant them their right to post bail.

“Given her innocence, as now plainly revealed in Ragos’ 30 April 2022 Affidavit, freely and voluntarily executed, affirmed in open court and subjected to, and hurdled, the crucibles of lengthy cross-examination, accused De Lima must now be spared from further inconvenience, expense, pain, anxiety and the ignominy of prolonged trial proceedings through outright dismissal of the instant case. She has suffered enough, not the least of all barely surviving a hostage-taking incident that almost cost her her life,” read the motion.

• ‘Near-death experience’: How ex-Sen. Leila de Lima survived a hostage-taking

The motion was filed on Thursday but was acknowledged by the court on Friday, the very day 6 years ago when she was taken into custody over allegations that she conspired to run the illegal drug trade in the New Bilibid Prison.

It supplemented an earlier motion filed on May 6, 2022, before Ragos was presented in court.

The motion relied mainly on Ragos’ retraction, arguing that previous Supreme Court rulings allow witnesses to retract their statements.

Ragos was formerly a key witness of the prosecution who claimed he personally delivered De Lima’s share of the Bilibid drug money to her house in Parañaque in 2012.

But he signed an affidavit recanting his claims on April 30, 2022 and was recalled to the witness stand, this time as Dayan’s witness, on Oct. 28, Nov. 4 and Dec. 2 last year and on Jan. 27 and Feb. 10 this year.

“The retraction of Prosecution star witness Rafael Ragos is only one of the latest series of retractions and admissions of witnesses used by former Sec. [Vitaliano] Aguirre or his agents that they were, one way or another, coerced into testifying falsely against herein Accused [De Lima and Dayan],” the motion said.

“Six years is indeed a long time to wait to start the process of restoring a reputation that was the subject of unrelentless, malicious attacks that culminated in the filing of manufactured criminal charges. The least that accused De Lima could ask for is that her vindication might finally begin with the restoration of her freedom,” it added.

HOW RAGOS WAS ‘COERCED’

In the motion, De Lima’s lawyer argued that Ragos’ “consistent, clear and categorical” retraction left no room for doubt that the alleged delivery of P10 million to De Lima was “fabricated and manufactured,” supposedly invented by former Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II.

On direct examination, Ragos claimed he was coerced by Aguirre to execute 2 prior affidavits, which he affirmed during the 2016 congressional probes.

He claimed that while at a casino hotel, a lawyer from the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) assisted him in preparing the Sept. 5, 2016 affidavit by typing on the computer and ‘putting words into [his] mouth’.”

The affidavits were allegedly meant to corroborate the claims of his former aide, Jun Ablen, about the supposed delivery of drug money to De Lima.

Ragos said that he was under the impression that if he did not execute the affidavit, he would be falsely charged and imprisoned.

But he was charged anyway, along with De Lima and Dayan and jailed for 10 months, only to be dropped from the case after agreeing to execute a third affidavit in March 2017, which he said was also executed allegedly under Aguirre’s coercion.

The facts were supposedly supplied to him by Aguirre while he was inside a prison cell.

According to De Lima’s motion, the “continuing” coercion of Ragos happened not only because of the threat of being charged but also because Aguirre, as Justice secretary, was his highest superior at that time who can fire him at any time.

Ragos was then a deputy director of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), an agency under the Department of Justice.

The motion cited Ragos’ testimony in court saying Aguirre was allegedly assisted by other officials like NBI Director Dante Gierran, PAO Chief Persida Acosta, and PAO lawyers Demeteer Huerta and Rigel Salvador.

Acosta was allegedly present during a Sunday meeting at a restaurant where Aguirre supposedly instructed Ragos to identify convict Peter Co as the source of the P10 million allegedly delivered to De Lima.

Ragos was quoted as saying Aguirre and Acosta and the PAO lawyers were “magkakampi” or “in cahoots” in allegedly making fabricated testimonies.

Aguirre had earlier denied coercing Ragos and even presented a video recording of the former prisons OIC supposedly freely executing his previous affidavit before lawyers from PAO at the PAO Office in Quezon City.

• Aguirre denies coercing Ragos to testify vs De Lima
• Aguirre offers supposed proof Ragos was not coerced into linking De Lima to illegal drug trade

Confronted by the hour-long video during his testimony, Ragos, the motion said, explained that he had to play the part — from the House Justice Committee and Senate hearings to the PAO Office interview and before the Muntinlupa court.

“Ragos reiterated upon questioning by the Prosecution that at that time, what appeared to be voluntary statements were all part of the role he was already playing under Aguirre’s coercive power and authority. That role was one of a convincing false witness,” read the motion.

“To the mind of Ragos, coerced and threatened as he was, this was the only way to save his life, his family, and his career and livelihood,” it added.

• 'Natakot ako': Ragos apologizes to De Lima over drug allegations

PAO earlier came out with a statement denying that Ragos claimed during the hearings that Acosta was among those who pressured him to testify against De Lima.

It also called Ragos’ accusations against 2 PAO lawyers “merely fabricated and a figment of Mr. Ragos’ imagination, geared towards making his recantation appear to be convincing and credible.”

ABS-CBN News is still seeking Acosta’s and PAO’s comments on the new motion.

But De Lima argued “Ragos’ piecemeal admissions in his series of affidavits are consistent with the context of a coerced confession.”

Ragos supposedly kept adding details to his original testimony. He initially did not mention the delivery of money to De Lima and did not know where the money came from and what the purpose for the delivery was, according to the motion.

DE LIMA: WITH RAGOS’ RECANTATION, NO MORE EVIDENCE

De Lima argued that Ragos’ previous affidavits were already filled with inconsistencies but his retraction now “irreparably obliterated” his earlier testimony.

“Now, with Ragos’s retraction, there is even no delivery of money to speak of, much less that it came from the illegal drug trade,” the motion said.

“The falsity of Ragos’s intial testimony, insofaras as it attempted to implicate Accused De Lima, has been indubitably proven in light of his retraction. So much so that, instead of strong evidence of guilt, what is now left is strong evidence of Accused De Lima’s innocence and the unjustness of her (continued) detention, thus warranting the outright dismissal of the case against her,” it added.

NO ARGUMENTS ON HABEAS CORPUS PETITION

De Lima’s motion did not however argue on the basis of violation of the right to speedy trial, which was the basis of a recent ruling allowing the temporary release of Chief Presidential Legal Counsel’s former aide Gigi Reyes through a habeas corpus petition.

Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin “Boying” Remulla has reiterated he will not oppose any move on the part of De Lima to secure her temporary liberty.

• Remulla says DOJ won't object to De Lima habeas corpus petition

DE LIMA: I WILL STAND MY GROUND

In a statement on her sixth year in detention, De Lima said she would stand her ground, and fight for her innocence and for "justice for the victims of extrajudicial killings and the families they left behind."

“Six years of unjust detention. 6 years that my persecutors hoped would be spent in futility, submission and silence. Instead, it has been 6 years of fighting the good fight... perhaps the most important 6 years of my life,” she said.

“Today, more than ever, I am convinced that I did the right thing of sacrificing my personal liberty and even my political career. I strongly believe that my vindication is at hand. But even if they continue to try to silence me, I refuse to cower,” she added.

• De Lima believes 'vindication at hand' on 6th year in 'unjust' detention

De Lima is facing 2 drug charges. A Muntinlupa court had earlier junked a third case in February 2021.

She had called the charges politically motivated, borne out of her opposition to former President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody drug war.

De Lima, as Senate Justice Committee chair in 2016, initiated a probe on the drug war killings when Duterte took office as president.

As chairperson of the Commission on Human Rights in 2009, she also led a public inquiry into the Davao Death Squad when Duterte was still mayor of Davao City.

De Lima had sought to draw a connection between the Davao Death Squad and the drug war by presenting former DDS member Edgar Matobato in the Senate.

In her 6 years in detention, she also survived a hostage-taking incident.

But she remained unfazed, despite her loss in her reelection bid for the Senate last year.

• More than reelection, De Lima wants vindication as witnesses retract accusations

“I will stand my ground. For when they come after me and try to silence me, they are actually coming after those who cannot speak for themselves and defend themselves. I cannot, in good conscience, let that happen,” she said.

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