De Lima wants convicts-turned-witnesses as accused in drug case

Senator Leila de Lima has asked a Muntinlupa court to name as accused the 13 convicts the prosecution has readied as witnesses in her drug case.

In a recent motion, De Lima, through lawyers, told the Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court Branch 256 that the Department of Justice (DOJ) erred by excluding the inmates as accused when the prosecutors themselves supposedly found that the 13 were "major players and perpetrators" of the illegal drug trade in the New Bilibid Prison.

De Lima, who has been detained for two years, stands trial on allegations that she conspired to commit illegal drug trading with a number of personalities when she was DOJ secretary. She has repeatedly denied the charge.

The prosecution intends for the 13 convicts, among others, to testify against the senator, a move she has questioned up to the Court of Appeals on the ground that persons convicted of crimes involving moral turpitude cannot be made state witnesses.

Witnesses Herbert Colanggo, Engelberto Durano, Noel Martinez, Reynante Diaz, Jaime Patcho, German Agojo, Hans Antonio Tan, Peter Co, Joel Capones, Vicente Sy, Rodolfo Magleo, Jojo Baligad, and Froilan Trestiza are serving prison terms for separate crimes that include murder, kidnapping, robbery with homicide, and illegal drug sale.

De Lima's motion said the investigating prosecutors who indicted her in 2017 also found that the 13 are "principal characters" in the Bilibid drug trade.

Based on the witnesses' own admissions, the DOJ supposedly recognized that, to name a few, Colanggo traded drugs "by the kilo," Agojo offered to be a collector of drug money, and Capones allegedly served as "supplier and delivery person" of drugs and money to Jaybee Sebastian, an accused.

"From the foregoing, it is clear that the prosecution, in excluding the witnesses who played major roles in the offense charged, gravely abused its discretion," the pleading stated.

"Such action is void and should be rectified by this Honorable Court."

It urged the court not to merely rely on the resolution of the DOJ's prosecutors excluding the 13 from the list of the accused.

The filing also reiterated De Lima's claim of her innocence and said the senator "has not dealt with or conspired with any of the aforementioned convicts-witnesses in their self-confessed involvement in the illegal drug trade."

"It would be a complete travesty of justice should the Honorable Court sanction the arbitrary and wrongful exclusion from the Information of those who had actual participation in the illegal drug trade, based on their own admissions and on the very findings in the DOJ Joint Resolution," it said.

De Lima has also recently filed a motion for the reinstatement of former Bureau of Corrections officer-in-charge Rafael Ragos as her co-accused in one of three drug trafficking cases against her. —KBK, GMA News