Senator Leila M. de Lima of the opposition claimed that the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) dismissal of Kerwin Espinosa’s illicit drug case only served to underscore her innocence in the face of all the fabricated drug allegations leveled against her.
After the Prosecution’s plea for reconsideration in the drug case against Espinosa was granted by the Makati Regional Trial Court (RTC), Branch 64, De Lima, the most prominent political prisoner under the Duterte government, made the statement.
“Again, the court in Espinosa’s case only reiterated that the testimony of Espinosa before the Senate cannot be relied upon as evidence even against Espinosa himself. In the first place, Espinosa has already recanted his Senate testimony.
“So insofar as I am concerned, with the court’s ruling and Espinosa’s recantation, Espinosa’s Senate testimony has already been conclusively proven to be unreliable as evidence against me,” she said.
“From the very start, even the DOJ desisted from including the Espinosa case in the charges they filed against me. As early as 2017, the DOJ already realized that the Espinosa fairy tale narrated at the Senate would not make the cut even in a Duterte-controlled court setting,” she added.
Espinosa fraudulently stated in Senate hearings that De Lima was participating in the illegal drug trade as then-Justice Secretary, but in a counter-affidavit filed with the DOJ on April 28 this year, he recanted his previous charges and indicated he had no dealings with De Lima.
Remember that the government’s case against Espinosa was built on the evidence of Marcelo Adorco, who had previously pretended to be Espinosa’s bodyguard and driver, implicating the latter and several other people in the illegal drug trade.
Adorco later recanted all of his claims, claiming that he had made his previous affidavits against Espinosa because he was afraid for his life. Following that, Espinosa’s camp and the other defendants submitted demurrers to evidence, which the Court approved, and the case was dismissed for lack of evidence.
Adorco also denied personally knowing De Lima and having no personal knowledge of the purported meeting of De Lima and Espinosa in Baguio City, according to his counter-affidavit submitted with the DOJ on August 28, 2020.
Espinosa’s Senate statement, according to De Lima, was a wholly concocted account imposed upon her and Ronnie Dayan, her former aide and co-accused in one of the two (2) remaining drug cases against her, by Duterte’s minions and operators.
“The fact that all of this is coming out as Duterte’s term ends indicates that the Duterte Admin’s cases against me are purely manufactured and fabricated in order to persecute, destroy, and silence me,” she said.
Apart from Espinosa, Dayan and former Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) Officer-in-Charge Rafael Ragos have also recanted their accusations against De Lima, stating that they were intimidated and threatened by state operatives and top Duterte administration officials.
On cross examination, prosecution witness and convicted killer Joel Capones denied personally knowing and transacting with De Lima and Dayan during the previous hearing in one of De Lima’s phony drug cases filed before the Muntinlupa RTC, Branch 256.
De Lima has maintained her innocence in all of the allegations brought against her. One of the three fabricated drug allegations against her was already dismissed due to a lack of evidence on Feb. 17, 2021.
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