(UPDATE) THE Court of Appeals (CA) has overturned the 2023 acquittal of former senator Leila de Lima and her former aide Ronnie Dayan in a drug trafficking case, citing grave abuse of discretion by the trial court and sending the matter back to square one.
THE Court of Appeals has overturned the 2023 acquittal of former senator Leila de Lima and her former aide Ronnie Dayan in a drug trafficking case, citing grave abuse of discretion by the trial court and sending the matter back to square one.
In a ruling written by Associate Justice Eleuterio Bathan, the appellate court's Eighth Division granted the petition for certiorari filed by the Office of the Solicitor General. The decision nullifies the Regional Trial Court of Muntinlupa City Branch 204's judgment that cleared de Lima and Dayan of allegations that they conspired to enable the illegal drug trade inside the New Bilibid Prison during her time as Justice secretary. The Court of Appeals found that the RTC's acquittal relied heavily and improperly on the recantation of former Bureau of Corrections official Rafael Ragos, who had earlier testified that he delivered drug money to de Lima. Ragos later said he was coerced into giving that testimony, a reversal the trial court accepted without fully examining its impact on the rest of the case. In a statement issued Thursday, de Lima said she would file a motion for reconsideration and would appeal the decision all the way to the Supreme Court, if necessary. She also insisted that her acquittal remained valid. 'My acquittal is final and unappealable because of the principle of double jeopardy, while the CA's decision is still appealable all the way to the Supreme Court,' she said in Filipino. De Lima, who will be a party-list representative in the House of Representatives in the incoming Congress, said the decision would not be an obstacle to her return to public service. De Lima has long insisted that the drug charges against her were politically motivated, orchestrated under Rodrigo Duterte's administration as retribution for her outspoken criticism of the former president's drug war. Detained for over six years, de Lima has argued that the testimonies used to jail her were coerced or fabricated — an assertion that gained traction when Ragos disowned his own statements in 2022, claiming he had been pressured into implicating her. 'I am really sorry. Natakot talaga ako ,' Ragos told de Lima during one court hearing, publicly apologizing for his previous claims. But the appellate court appeared unmoved by the dramatic about-face in Ragos' testimony. It emphasized that recantations were inherently suspect and must be rigorously scrutinized — not accepted at face value. The RTC's failure to reassess Ragos' credibility or reconcile his new claims with the rest of the prosecution's evidence, the CA said, left a 'legal vacuum.' The CA also noted that the trial court's ruling lacked a clear explanation of its legal and factual basis, preventing the government from lodging a meaningful appeal. As a result, it concluded that due process was not observed and that the acquittal was void. On the issue of double jeopardy, the appellate court ruled that the constitutional protection does not apply in this instance. Since the acquittal was issued with grave abuse of discretion, the decision was deemed invalid from the start, allowing the case to be retried. De Lima, who was granted bail in 2023 after nearly seven years in detention, has since resumed public advocacy work and remains a vocal critic of the Duterte-era drug war. The Court of Appeals' decision means the trial court must now conduct a new hearing that meets all legal and evidentiary standards, effectively reviving a case that had once appeared all but closed. According to court records, de Lima and Dayan were accused of conspiring to engage in illegal drug trading, with prosecutors alleging that de Lima, as then-justice secretary, received P10 million from Ragos. The money was purportedly sourced from high-profile inmates at the New Bilibid Prison and allegedly used to fund her 2016 Senate campaign. Ragos was initially charged alongside de Lima but later became a key government witness. His 2022 recantation, in which he claimed coercion, formed a central pillar of de Lima's defense — one the appellate court has now ordered be reevaluated.
Lima Acquittal Overturned By CA
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