The trial on former Senator Leila de Lima’s remaining drug case will resume early subsequent month with a brand new decide in cost.
The case will now be heard by Muntinlupa City Regional Trial Court Branch 204 Judge Abraham Joseph Alcantara beginning on July 7 following a re-raffle, in keeping with an order he issued on June 29.
Alcantara was the decide who acquitted De Lima within the drug case involving former Bureau of Corrections officer-in-charge Rafael Ragos and her former driver-bodyguard Ronnie Dayan, citing ”cheap doubt.”
Ragos had claimed that he and aide Jovencio Ablen Jr. delivered P5 million in proceeds from the unlawful drug commerce contained in the New Bilibid Prison to De Lima’s home in Parañaque City in 2012.
In May 2022, Ragos retracted his testimony towards De Lima.
“Hence, this Court is constrained to consider the subsequent retraction of witness Ragos. Ultimately, the retraction created reasonable doubt which warrants the acquittal of both accused,” Alcantara mentioned in a call launched in May.
De Lima’s different drug case was dismissed in February 2021.
The re-raffle stemmed from the choice of Branch 256 Judge Romeo Buenaventura to stop the trial on June 15 on allegations that he did not disclose that his brother had served as a lawyer for the late Oriental Mindoro lawmaker Reynaldo Umali.
Umali led a congressional inquiry in 2016 into De Lima’s alleged involvement within the unlawful drug commerce within the NBP in alternate for election marketing campaign funds.
De Lima has repeatedly denied the costs towards her, which she claimed to have been fabricated by the Duterte administration. —VBL, GMA Integrated News
Source: www.gmanetwork.com
