New witness in De Lima trial done with testimony, promulgation to push through May 12 —lawyer

The camp of detained Senator Leila de Lima remained confident that the court will rule in their favor based on evidence even after the prosecution presented a new witness during the trial's reopening on Friday.

"Umaasa kami na sana lalabas na 'yung katotohanan at naniniwala kami na dedesisyunan ito ng hukuman base sa ebidensya at merito ng kaso na naisampa laban kay Senator Leila de Lima," Atty. Filibon Tacardon, De Lima’s legal counsel, said in an ambush interview.

(We are hoping that the truth will come out and we believe that the court will decide on this based on the evidence and merits of the case that was filed against Senator Leila de Lima.)

The Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court Branch 204 ordered the one-day reopening of De Lima’s trial on Friday to allow the prosecution to present rebuttal evidence and Atty. Demiteer Huerta of the Public Attorney's Office (PAO) as a rebuttal witness.

Tacardon declined to give a statement regarding Huerta’s testimony.

"Dahil nga ito'y dedesisyonan na, ang defense team ay we decided na huwag na muna magbigay ng statement doon sa testimonya ni Atty. Demiteer Huerta at iiwan na lang namin ‘yan sa diskusyon at pag-evaluate ng ating hukuman," he said.

(Because this will be decided soon, our defense team decided not give a statement on the testimony of Atty. Demiteer Huerta and we will just leave this to the evaluation of the court.)

Tacardon said the promulgation of the case will push through on May 12, 2023.

Meanwhile, Prosecutor Sonny Ocampo, the head of the panel of prosecutors, said Huerta’s testimony showed that there was no coercion on the part of the public attorneys.

"The testimony of Demiteer Huerta is to be presented in order to contradict or controvert the allegations of Ragos that the words contained in his two statements were supplied by Atty. Rigel Salvador, also of the PAO, and to prove that there was no coercion on the part of the public attorneys," Ocampo said.

Ocampo said the ball is now in the Muntinlupa RTC’s court.

"We will just wait for the verdict. We do not want any speculation. We do not want to preempt our own conclusion," he said.

De Lima is accused of benefiting financially from the illegal drug trade inside the New Bilibid Prison during her stint as Justice Secretary. She has repeatedly denied the allegation.

In February 2021, the Muntinlupa City RTC Branch 205 junked one of the three drug cases against De Lima, who marked her sixth year in detention in February 2023. —KBK/ VAL, GMA Integrated News