'Who will come next?': De Lima questions death of witness Vincent Sy from cardiac arrest
MANILA, Philippines — Opposition Sen. Leila de Lima questioned Sunday the "trend of witnesses dying" as she raised the possibility of foul play after the second straight death of a former witness against her amid the coronavirus pandemic.
This comes after Vincent Sy, a convicted drug lord who once testified against De Lima, suddenly died of a heart attack on Thursday, July 29.
Sy, who previously testified and said that he contributed half a million pesos to De Lima's senatorial campaign in 2012, eventually retracted his claims and admitted he did not know De Lima according to the senator's lawyer.
"It's not remote that any, some, if not all, of these prosecution witnesses who were either coerced, threatened, bribed or blackmailed to lie about my alleged drug links would be targeted for extermination in order to permanently silence them from exposing the truth about my cases," the senator said in a dispatch from her cell in Camp Crame.
"This beleaguering trend of witnesses dying still does not give comfort to me who is waiting for their eventual revelation on who are behind these fabricated charges filed against me. As they say, dead men tell no tales. And it appears that my persecutors are sticking to the malevolent wisdom of this saying. As if the truth can be eternally buried or is not inevitable. As if there's no day of reckoning."
The death of Sy is only the second high-profile death linked to De Lima's case after drug convict Jaybee Sebastian also succumbed to the coronavirus in July last year. Former Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II accused him of running a funding campaign to support De Lima's Senate run in 2016.
READ: Drug lord admits he never met De Lima or financed her senatorial campaign — lawyer
"I believe and maintain, to this day, that it was a case of deliberate killing in order to block his then impending retraction of his affidavit falsely implicating me in the Bilibid drug trade," she said Sunday of Sebastian's death.
De Lima was jailed in 2017 over drug charges filed by the Department of Justice. She is accused of involvement in the illegal drug trade at the New Bilibid Prison when she was Justice secretary during the presidency of Benigno Aquino III.
The senator has long been an outspoken critic of the Duterte administration and once attempted to investigate the existence of an alleged "Davao Death Squad" while Justice Secretary and later when she was chair of the Commission on Human Rights.
De Lima did not mince words Sunday, raising the possibility of foul play behind Sy's recent death.
"Ano na naman ito!? Meron na naman namatay (o pinatay?) na high-profile inmate sa Bilibid. At cardiac arrest naman daw ang dahilan," De Lima said.
(What is this? Another high-profile died (or was killed?) in Bilibid. And cardiac arrest is the reason this time.)
"Sino kaya ang isusunod nila? (I wonder who will come next?)"
De Lima was acquitted earlier this year in one of three drug cases against her. The two others remain pending in separate courts, though she has yet to be convicted of any crimes. She claims the charges against her are politically motivated and are made up.
— with reports from Bella Perez-Rubio
Sen. Leila de Lima on Saturday marked the first year of her detention at the Philippine National Police detention center in Quezon City.
Ahead of the anniversary of her arrest, the Senate minority and various rights groups called on the Philippine government to release her immediately.
The Department of Justice initially charged De Lima for drug trading, but over the months, the state prosecutors filed motions to amend the charges and indict the senator on conspiracy to commit drug trading instead.
De Lima is known as one of the most outspoken critics of President Rodrigio Duterte's administration.
Detained former Sen. Leila De Lima expresses dismay over the Solicitor General's petition for certiorari agains her acquittal.
"I am, of course, greatly dismayed by the OSG's move in elevating to the CA the judgment of my acquittal in one of my 3 trumped-up drug cases," De Lima says in a dispatch.
"An acquittal is an acquittal, a final and conclusive disposition of the merits of the case which, under firmly settled case law, is no longer appealable, save for very exceptional grounds or circumstances, none of which can be legitimately invoked to question the 12 May 2023 Decision of the RTC-Muntinlupa, Br. 205 exonerating me and my co-accused," she adds.
"What is exceptional here is the persistence of my persecutors to perpetuate this travesty of justice by keeping me incarcerated," the former senator and justice secretary concludes.
The remaining drug case against former Sen. Leila De Lima was raffled off to the Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court Branch 206, sala of Presiding Judge Gener M. Gito, her legal team says.
The remaining drug case against detained former senator Leila De Lima will be handled by Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court Joseph Alcantara.
The case is re-raffled off to Court 26 after Judge Romeo Buenaventure inhibited himself two weeks ago.
De Lima is battling the drug case after years of being accused of receiving around P70 million from alleged illegal drug trade collection at the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City from 2013 to 2015.
Council for People’s Development and Governance, a network of 60 non-governmental organizations, on Independence Day, called for the release of former Sen. Leila de Lima.
In a statement, CPDG has condemned the “injustices endured” by de Lima, including political prisoners and those behind bars waiting for their cases to be heard. This, they said, highlight “the disturbingly biased and problematic nature of the Philippine justice system -punishing mostly the powerless and targeted.”
“It is a critical juncture in our nation’s history, demanding that the Philippine government under [President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr.] genuinely upholds his promises to rectify the prevailing ‘unfreedoms’ within our society,” they add.
Department of Justice prosecutors file an appeal on the Muntinlupa court’s dismissal of the conspiracy to commit drug charge against former Sen. Leila de Lima.
The prosecution filed a Motion for Reconsideration before the Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court Branch 204 that acquitted De Lima on May 12—clearing her of her second drug case.
They say in their appeal: “With all due respect, the Prosecution most respectfully moves for the reconsideration thereof on the ground that jurisprudence dictates and the circumstances of the instant case reveal that the subsequent recantation of the witness Ragos was not able to vitiate his original testimony given in open court.”
Prosecutors also argue “there are other pieces of evidence on record to prove all the elements of the crime charged, including the role played by both accused [De Lima and her ex-aide Ronnie Dayan] in the illegal drug trading inside the [Bilibid].” — Kristine Joy Patag
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