Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on Philippine authorities on Wednesday to drop the accusations against Senator Leila de Lima, free her from detention, and investigate allegations that witnesses were intimidated into giving their testimony.
“Senator Leila de Lima has suffered five years in detention for an alleged crime that key witnesses now dispute,” HRW deputy Asia director Phil Robertson said.
“The authorities should immediately drop the politically motivated charges and release her, and impartially investigate the witnesses’ claims that they were coerced to give false testimony,” he added.
HRW decided two key witnesses, self-confessed drug lord Kerwin Espinosa and former Bureau of Corrections officer-in-charge Rafael Ragos, recanted their statements that de Lima received money from the suspected illegal drug trade in the New Bilibid Prison (NBP). De Lima has consistently refuted the allegations.
“Senator de Lima should be included among the casualties of President Duterte’s catastrophic ‘drug war,’” the HRW official added.
“The senator’s imprisonment is among the low points of Duterte’s presidency, and the thousands of families still suffering from his punitive policies would doubtlessly welcome her release,” he said.
De Lima, a vocal opponent of President Rodrigo Duterte and his murderous drug campaign, was imprisoned in February 2017 on claims that she was involved in the illegal drug trade inside the NBP during Benigno Aquino III’s government as Justice Secretary.
HRW calls on Philippine gov’t to free De Lima
Espinosa accused De Lima of getting P8 million from him for her senatorial campaign through her former driver and security assistant Ronnie Dayan during a series of Senate hearings in 2016.
However, in a counter-affidavit subscribed before the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Thursday, April 28, 2022, Espinosa recanted his sworn statements during the Senate joint committee hearings on the killing of his father, Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr., saying he was “coerced, pressured, intimidated and seriously threatened” by the police to implicate de Lima.
Ragos told a Senate hearing in 2016 that he delivered, along with aide Jovencio Ablen Jr., P5 million in proceeds from the illegal drug trade inside the NBP to De Lima’s house in Parañaque City in 2012.
He also testified that De Lima received payments from Peter Co and other drug traffickers to finance his senate campaign in 2013.
Ragos was appointed OIC of BuCor in 2012 by De Lima, who refuted the claims.
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