Hontiveros, Pimentel file reso seeking De Lima’s release from detention

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III and Senator Risa Hontiveros have filed a resolution seeking the release of former Senator Leila de Lima from "unjust and arbitrary detention" and urging the Department of Justice to drop the remaining charges against the opposition figure.

"May isa na kaming resolution na finile magkasama pareho kaming authors, para palayain si Sen. Leila," Hontiveros said at a press conference Tuesday.

(We have filed a resolution seeking the release of Sen. Leila.)

Hontiveros said the resolution, which was filed on July 14, enumerates the experience of the former senator in the past five years and also includes the witnesses' recantation of testimonies against De Lima.

"Sa huli ng resolusyon ay hinihiling namin ni Sen. Koko, at may isa pang senador na nasa majority naman na nagsabi kahapon na sasali sa amin bilang co-author, sa huli, hinihingi namin sa Department of Justice na i-withdraw na ‘yung mga kaso laban kay Sen. Leila at palayain siya," she said.

(In the latter part of the resolution, our wish, and there is a senator from the majority bloc who said yesterday that he will also be our co-author, is for the Department of Justice to withdraw the cases against Sen. Leila and free her from detention.) 

The minority senators did not name the senator who expressed intention to co-author the resolution but Hontiveros said the legislator is a female.

"Early on sa administrasyon, sinabi ng Justice secretary na kung saka-sakali, hindi sila hahadlang. Kumukuha kami ng pag-asa...sana isa pa itong senyales ng pag-asa," she added.

Under proposed Senate Resolution 27, Pimentel and Hontiveros cited the retraction of testimonies by key witnesses--Kerwin Espinosa, Rafael Ragos, and Ronnie Dayan-- in De Lima' drug cases.

"With these series of recantations, it is becoming increasingly apparent that Senator de Lima's arrest and continued unjust detention was nothing more than a carefully orchestrated ploy to silence an outspoken critic and passionate human rights advocate," the resolution read.

The minority senators also pointed out that despite De Lima's detention, she remained productive in authoring several bills and resolutions and a handful of them have been enacted into law such as the 4Ps Act, Magna Carta of the Poor, National Commission of Senior Citizens Act, and the Community-Based Monitoring System.

"The DOJ, under its current leadership, should seriously consider these retractions and immediately withdraw all pending drug charges against [former] Senator de Lima and move for her release from detention thereby redeeming itself to the Filipino people and proving that its institutional integrity remains intact by standing up for truth, justice, and the rule of law," the minority senators said.

"Every day that justice is not served amounts to a mockery of the whole justice system. It is thus incumbent upon the Senate to call on its co-equal branches of the government to be true to their mandates of ensuring that justice is served without passion or prejudice, and always with fairness," they added.

'Sound discretion'

For his part, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said the Muntinlupa City Regional Trial Court has the sole power and authority to act on the cases against De Lima.

“The Resolution was filed in light of the recent recantations of key witnesses in the drug cases against De Lima. Based on records, Rafael Ragos, a defense witness has not been presented before the Muntinlupa Court,” Remulla said in a statement.

“Hence, the Department will rely on the sound discretion of the Court on the appreciation of the alleged evidence,” he added.

De Lima has been detained at the PNP Custodial Center in Camp Crame, Quezon City since February 2017 over allegations that she allowed the illegal drug trade to proliferate inside the New Bilibid Prison during her term as Justice secretary.

Her alleged complicity in the sale of illegal drugs was supposedly in exchange for funds for her senatorial campaign in 2016, a charge she has repeatedly denied and claimed to have been fabricated by the Duterte administration.

A drug case against De Lima was junked by the Muntinlupa RTC Branch 205 in February last year. The senator is also facing drug cases that are pending before Branches 204 and 256. — with Joahna Lei Casilao/RSJ/VBL, GMA News