De Lima: Nice of ex-DOJ chief Aguirre to welcome my release

Former Senator Leila de Lima on Tuesday said it was "nice" of former Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre to welcome her release on bail and recognize that she had suffered.

During an interview on Balitanghali, de Lima was asked to comment on Aguirre's declaration that he stood by his filing of drug charges against her in February 2017 but that he welcomed her release on bail because she had suffered enough.

“Well, it’s good of him, it’s nice of him to say that. At least he recognizes that I suffered enough. I suffered more than enough,” said de Lima.

On Monday, after almost seven years in detention, de Lima was freed on bail in her remaining drug case before the Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 206.

Meanwhile, De Lima hoped that Aguirre was sincere.

“He knows... the role that he has played in all of it. Yun na lang muna po ang pwede kong sabihin,” she said.

The Department of Justice, under then-DOJ chief Aguirre, filed three separate drug cases against De Lima in connection with her alleged participation in the illegal drug trade inside the New Bilibid Prison (NBP).

Former Corrections Officer-In-Charge Rafael Ragos recanted his statements against her in May 2022. Ragos said Aguirre threatened him into making the false allegations.

Aguirre denied this, saying he had a video taken by the Public Attorney’s Office that showed Ragos testifying freely, spontaneously, and voluntarily against De Lima.

As to Senator Ronald "Bato" Dela Rosa questioning why it took so long for de Lima to be granted bail if the evidence was weak, de Lima said her legal team had struggled going through the process.

“‘Yun din nga ang talagang naging talagang struggle ng legal team namin. My legal team was doing its best to prove to the court na baseless talaga itong charges. But we have to go through the process. And that’s really one of the loopholes of our system,” she said.

(That was really the struggle of my legal team. My legal team was doing its best to prove to the court that the charges against me were baseless, but we had to go through the process. And that’s really one of the loopholes of our system.)

“May dinadaanan na proseso na most of the time. It really took so, so long for the process to come to an end. And tatlo kasi yung kasong finile sa akin. So onti-onti nang na giba yung tatlong kaso na iyan,” she added.

(You have to undergo the process most of the time. It really took so, so long for the process to come to an end. And there were three cases filed against me. So those cases were slowly demolished.)

Earlier, US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller urged the country to resolve De Lima’s remaining case “in a manner that is consistent with its international human rights obligations and commitments.”

De Lima’s first acquittal came in February 2021 when the Muntinlupa City RTC Branch 205 junked one of her three cases.

On May 12, the Muntinlupa RTC Branch 204 acquitted de Lima and Ronnie Dayan, her co-accused and former bodyguard, of an illegal drug trading charge on the grounds of reasonable doubt. — DVM, GMA Integrated News