21-3-2024 (MANILA) The legal team representing former Philippine senator Leila de Lima has urged a Muntinlupa court to acquit her in a high-profile illegal drug trading case, asserting the prosecution categorically failed to prove her guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
In an amended demurrer filed with the Regional Trial Court’s Branch 206, De Lima’s counsel from Rigoroso Galindez and Rabino Law Offices argued the testimonies of prosecution witnesses amounted to inadmissible hearsay from convicted criminals whose credibility had been severely impeached.
“Much less was the prosecution able to discharge its burden of establishing the guilt of the accused with moral certainty and beyond reasonable doubt…a degree of proof higher than the standard in bail proceedings,” the demurrer stated. It claimed most crucial evidence had already been scrutinised during earlier bail hearings, with the trial relying heavily on “inconsequential” testimony from incarcerated convicts.
Crucially, the lawyers highlighted how key witnesses Froilan Trestiza and Jaybee Sabastian admitted under cross-examination to having no direct contact with De Lima herself regarding alleged drug dealings. Two other witnesses, Rodolfo Magleo and Nonilo Arile, were accused of offering contrasting “colourful twists” by retracting previous affidavits implicating the ex-senator.
The demurrer further lamented the prosecution’s supposed recycling of witnesses from the Anti-Money Laundering Council previously involved in two other cases where De Lima had already been acquitted. It claimed case records remained unclear on specifics of when and how any drug trading conspiracy purportedly materialised.
“An analysis of the entire evidence shows the absence of any specific drug transaction and object evidence that is the subject matter of the prosecution’s accusations,” De Lima’s legal team asserted.
The 63-year-old former justice secretary and human rights commissioner has already spent over six years in custody since her arrest in 2017 on drug charges she has consistently denied as politically motivated. While her provisional liberty was granted in 2023 after two other cases crumbled, she continues battling the most serious allegations in this ongoing trial.
De Lima’s high-profile clash with former President Rodrigo Duterte over his bloody war on drugs led to her dramatic incarceration, which garnered global condemnation from rights groups accusing Manila of persecuting a critic.
