Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 4) – Former Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II on Wednesday denied coercing ex-Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) chief Rafael Ragos to testify against Senator Leila de Lima, also questioning the timing and motive behind the retraction of his allegations.
Aguirre in a statement maintained Ragos voluntarily offered to testify under oath that he personally delivered drug money from New Bilibid Prison (NBP) convicts to De Lima’s residence in 2012 when she was still head of the Department of Justice (DOJ).
“I was genuinely surprised at the statement of Mr. Rafael Ragos that I coerced him to execute affidavits involving Senator Leila de Lima in the drug trade in the Bilibid prisons,” Aguirre said. “It is farthest from the truth, I was never involved in any efforts to coerce him.”
Ragos is a principal witness in one of two pending cases against De Lima. He recently recanted his allegations against the lawmaker, claiming he met in 2016 with then-Justice Secretary Aguirre and was forced to cooperate to sign false affidavits, so he can be dropped as co-accused.
Hours after Aguirre released his statement, De Lima posted a tweet calling him a liar.
Aguirre noted, however, that Ragos also stood by his allegations against De Lima before the Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court (RTC) in 2019.
He argued that he resigned from the Department of Justice (DOJ) in April 2018, and “whatever pressure that Mr. Ragos claimed I exerted on him is non-existent by the time of his testimony before the RTC.” He added that Ragos had several case conferences with DOJ prosecutors handling the case, but there was no mention of coercion or retraction.
“Why retract now when the May 9, 2022 National Elections is only a few days away and the accused, Senator Leila de Lima is lagging very far behind in surveys and voter’s preferences? Is it possible that Mr. Ragos is being used as a pawn in last ditch efforts to gain sympathy from voters?” Aguirre said.
He also called Ragos a “man with a grudge,” claiming the ex-BuCor chief previously requested for back pay but did not receive any, and asked to be appointed to a government post but was ignored.
“Lastly, as a lawyer, allow me to state that it is a time honored rule that retractions are unreliable unless backed up by incontrovertible evidence. As it is, devoid of any reliable back-up, the statement of Mr. Ragos is a worthless piece of paper,” Aguirre said.
De Lima earlier said she was not surprised that Aguirre was implicated by Ragos, as she supposed he was the “lead instigator” of what she calls trumped-up charges against her.
The senator, a fierce critic of President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration, has been in jail since 2017. She was acquitted in one of her three drug cases, with the other two still pending at the Muntinlupa RTC.
Last week, self-confessed drug dealer Kerwin Espinosa also retracted his allegations against De Lima, claiming he was only threatened by the police. However, the Prosecutor General explained the government did not cite Espinosa as a state witness because they were already satisfied with the testimonies of Ragos and some inmates to convict De Lima.
READ: De Lima camp now eyes Kerwin Espinosa as witness
“Aguirre is a certified liar. I hope he realizes the damage he has done to the DOJ as an institution,” she wrote on Twitter.
“Walang expiration ang paglabas ng katotohanan [There’s no expiration date in telling the truth],” she said in a separate post.
