De Lima urges court to allow Ragos to testify

Published October 05, 2022 03:59 PM By RICHA NORIEGA,GMA News

Detained former senator Leila de Lima has filed a motion for reconsideration to allow former Bureau of Corrections officer-in-charge Rafael Ragos to testify again on the drug case filed against her.

In an omnibus comment filed with the Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court on Tuesday, De Lima said “the prosecutors should welcome more information in the interest of justice.”

In May 2022, Ragos retracted

his statement against the detained former senator, saying that he was threatened by then-Justice secretary Vitaliano Aguirre into making false allegations against her.

Ragos apologized to De Lima for testifying against her and said she should be cleared of the drug charges, for which she has been detained since February 2017.

“If they believe the recantation of witness Ragos is made under duress or is questionable, they would still have the right to cross-examine the recalled witness. As explicitly provided under the Code, the prosecutors should not be fixated on convicting the accused but rather ensure that justice is done. Disappointingly, the prosecutors would rather suppress the testimony of Rafael Ragos and block the truth about the accused’s innocence coming out,” De Lima said.

“The prosecutors also want the Honorable Court to simply adopt their conclusion that the testimony is a ‘recantation’ that amounts to ‘perjury.’ Such is highly improper because the appreciation of the testimony and its probative value is wholly up to the Honorable Court. A determination if the claims are indeed a recantation or are perjurious would only be possible after the witness is recalled and the court is allowed to weigh the statements accordingly,” she added.

De Lima said the prosecutors’ opposition to the recall of Ragos is “contrary to the public position of the Department of Justice (DOJ).”

The former senator then cited the statements earlier made by former DOJ secretary and now Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra on the need for Ragos to testify on his recantation before the court instead of merely executing an affidavit: “The only way to find out if witnesses are lying is to present them in court for intensive examination and cross-examination. Ultimately, it is the judge who will weigh the truthfulness and probative value of the testimony of witnesses, and will render judgment based on the totality of evidence presented by both sides at the end of trial.”

She also cited DOJ Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla saying that “[B]ased on records, Rafael Ragos, a defense witness, has not been presented before the Muntinlupa Court. Hence, the Department will rely on the Court’s sound discretion on the appreciation of the alleged evidence.”

“Ultimately, continuing to suppress witness Rafael Ragos’ additional testimony would be a complete repudiation of the prosecutors’ oath, their ethical responsibility, and the DOJ’s position as pronounced by the current and immediately preceding Secretaries of Justice,” De Lima said.

“All that the accused is asking the prosecution is to listen once again to its own witness, and consider his testimony that will tend to show or plainly establish that they have been prosecuting the innocent and protecting the guilty all along, instead of the other way around,” she said.

“As such, the Prosecution definitely has no reason to deny the presentation of the testimony of recantation, unless for them, all that Prosecution means is an obsession for victory, regardless of whether the persons they convict and send to prison are indeed guilty or not,” she further said.

Lawyer Filibon Tacardon, De Lima’s counsel, earlier said that Ragos was yet to affirm the recantation of his allegations against the detained former senator after the prosecutors asked the court not to let Ragos testify.

He said the court gave them five days to answer the motion for reconsideration. It also vowed to resolve the motion before the next hearing on October 28 and November 4.

De Lima has been detained at Camp Crame since 2017 over drug allegations in the New Bilibid Prison. One of the three drug charges against her was junked by the Muntinlupa Court in February last year.

In May and April, respectively, Ragos and self-confessed drug lord Kerwin Espinosa recanted their drug allegations against De Lima.—AOL, GMA News
 

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