This raises the query: Why did the prosecutors file that MR within the first place?
Nicely, apparently the bosses of the Division of Justice (DOJ) will not pursue the one drug towards cost Mamamayang Liberal Consultant Leila de Lima, which she had been acquitted of to start with.
“We did discuss and conform to withdraw the MR (movement for reconsideration) filed by the trial prosecutors on the grounds of double jeopardy,” Prosecutor Basic Richard Fadullon, the pinnacle of the prosecutors, advised Rappler in a message.
Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin “Boying” Remulla answered “sure” when requested by Rappler to verify the settlement with Fadullon to hunt the dismissal of the case, as soon as and for all.
This raises the query: Why did the prosecutors file that MR within the first place? Though the Nationwide Prosecution Service (NPS) is unbiased, it’s an connected company of the DOJ and historically offers courtesy to the justice secretary as the general boss.
“I realized about it by my workers whom they knowledgeable, after the Panel of Prosecutors had already filed it as a result of apparently it was already the deadline for the submitting,” Fadullon advised Rappler when requested if he was not conscious of the movement’s submitting.
“Confirmed: Walang imprimatur ng DOJ management ang (the DOJ management didn’t give imprimatur to the) brazen actions of the Panel of Prosecutors in additional persecuting [De Lima] and violating her constitutional proper towards double jeopardy,” Dino de Leon, one in every of De Lima’s legal professionals, mentioned on X.
In a press release on Wednesday, De Lima referred to as on the DOJ to probe the prosecutors and sanction them.
“Our personal evaluation of the scenario displays the details acknowledged by SOJ Remulla. The panel of prosecutors, or at the least a few of them, are appearing on the idea of a political agenda. They’ve been doing so for the previous 7 years. Insofar as my case is worried, they nonetheless reply to the Duterte cabal, like many within the authorities who’re nonetheless loyal to FPRRD (former president Rodrigo Roa Duterte),” the lawmaker mentioned.
On July 14, a panel of prosecutors filed a movement for reconsideration on the newest acquittal of De Lima from the Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court docket. It didn’t bear the signature of Fadullon.
All of it started when the Court docket of Appeals (CA) determined the primary enchantment on that acquittal, and determined to remand the case again to the decrease court docket to jot down one other determination. Heeding the CA’s order, the RTC acquitted De Lima as soon as once more in June in a brand new ruling.
After that, the prosecutors filed one other MR earlier than the the decrease court docket. The De Lima camp decried this as a case of “triple jeopardy.”
“These renegade prosecutors should be forthwith disciplined and be held answerable for abuse of processes and twisting the legislation for political causes,” De Leon mentioned.
De Lima’s instances suffered a sophisticated flip when the prosecutors didn’t let go of her acquittal within the drug instances.
In complete, the lawmaker confronted three prices of conspiracy to commit unlawful drug buying and selling, all filed underneath former president Rodrigo Duterte. The allegation was as justice secretary, she induced New Bilibid Jail (NBP) inmates to commerce medicine in order that she will be able to elevate funds for her senatorial marketing campaign in 2016, which she received. After seven years of detention, and a number of adjustments in judges, De Lima first bought out on bail in 2023.
By 2024, she had been acquitted of all three prices.
The case being activated by the panel of prosecutors is the one the place their star witness was speculated to be former Bureau of Corrections chief Rafael Ragos. However Ragos recanted even earlier than Duterte completed his time period, claiming he was pressured and threatened to invent a narrative towards De Lima.
When Muntinlupa Metropolis RTC Department 204 Presiding Choose Abraham Joseph Alcantara acquitted De Lima on that cost, prosecutors filed the primary MR. The decrease court docket denied the MR, and affirmed its acquittal of De Lima.
However the combat didn’t cease there as a result of the Workplace of the Solicitor Basic, then underneath Duterte-era justice secretary Menardo Guevarra, filed a petition for certiorari with the CA to problem the RTC ruling.
This was the petition that triggered the remanding, inflicting Alcantara to re-acquit De Lima and write one other court docket determination clearing the lawmaker within the drug case.
There’s a constitutional proper towards double jeopardy, which implies that typically, somebody who had been acquitted can’t be subjected to a different trial except there’s a compelling case of mistrial or grave abuse of discretion. On this case, prosecutors are saying that the trial court docket decide put a lot weight on Ragos’ recantation.
De Lima’s camp believes this isn’t a compelling argument to reopen a closed case. – Rappler.com
