Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, December 22) — Former Sen. Leila de Lima on Friday questioned the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) decision to hold the transfer of 11 inmate-witnesses in the last drug case of the opposition figure, claiming the agency is standing by the previous administration’s “bogus charges” against her.
“Are they afraid of the truth? Why are they blocking it?” De Lima wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
The Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court Branch 206 has ordered the transfer of the inmates from the Sablayan Prison and Penal Farm in Occidental Mindoro to the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) Minimum Security Compound in Muntinlupa City.
However, on Thursday, the DOJ said it will hold the transfer “pending any legal remedies,” and insisted that it is the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) that has jurisdiction over the custody and management of the convicts.
De Lima argued that the Muntinlupa court “clearly has jurisdiction” over the inmates since they are witnesses in a case pending before the court and it wants to be assured “they are safe and free in their testimony.”
“Now that they are recanting, DOJ is saying that they are convicted felons, and that their recantations are not credible,” De Lima pointed out. “These are the same convict-witnesses DOJ said were credible when they followed what their handlers and the prosecutors wanted them to say.”
In a statement sent to the media on Friday, DOJ spokesperson Mico Clavano said: “We are only doing what we think is the right thing to do. Nothing more, nothing less.”
De Lima said the “refusal” of the DOJ only showed “the agency’s continuing attempt to stand by” former Justice Secretaries Vitaliano Aguirre II and Menardo Guevarra’s “bogus charges against” her.
The two served as DOJ chiefs during the administration of former President Rodrigo Duterte, whose bloody war on drugs killed thousands.
“Until the very last moment, this agency which I also led for five years opposed my application for bail, despite its willful and deliberate use of manufactured evidence and perjured witnesses just to sustain Duterte’s persecution cases against me,” De Lima said.
She claimed the department wants the truth-telling by the inmate-witnesses “to be made more difficult,” in a bid to prevent them from disclosing identities of DOJ officials who might have “conspired to fabricate testimonies and manufacture evidence” against her.
The Duterte administration filed three drug cases against De Lima, alleging she extorted money from illegal drug traders in the NBP to fund her 2016 senatorial campaign.
She was acquitted in the two cases and over 10 witnesses have recanted their testimonies against the former senator.
RELATED: Ex-police official to recant in De Lima’s drug case
On Nov. 13, De Lima was granted provisional liberty after posting bail for her remaining drug case. Her release came after six years and nine months of detention.
