President Rodrigo Duterte on Friday said drug charges against detained opposition Senator Leila de Lima can still prosper even after witnesses recanted their allegations against her.
Duterte made the remark after Rafael Ragos, a former officer in charge of the Bureau of Corrections who testified against De Lima,Ragos claimed he was threatened by then-Justice secretary Vitaliano Aguirre into making false allegations against her. Aguirre“Itong si Ragos, well, he was a witness. But overall, we think we can still prosper in the prosecution of De Lima,” Duterte said in an interview with Pastor Apollo Quiboloy.
In 2016, Ragos told a Senate hearing that he delivered, along with aide Jovencio Ablen Jr., P5 million in proceeds from the illegal drug trade inside the New Bilibid Prison to De Lima's house in Parañaque City in 2012. “Itong si Kerwin may ano 'yan kung manalo si ano, ang kandidato nilang presidente ito lang ano, pardon yan, ‘wag kang mag-alala pardon 'yan o nabayaran,” Duterte said.Duterte claimed that Ragos allegedly received money from De Lima which he said came from the drug lords.
“Si Aguirre sinasabi niyang coerced, sabihan ko si Aguirre..Bakit mo ako takut-takutin, bakit mo ako papirmahan ng hindi totoo? Kung hindi man buang ang mga 'yan,” he added.look into the retracted statementsProsecutor General Ben Malcontento said their best course of action is to refer the matter to the Ombudsman since it involves current and former officials of the DOJ.
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