Muntinlupa judge affirms decision acquitting Leila de Lima

A 65th birthday-Thanksgiving Mass for our staunchest advocate of Truth and Justice, former Senator Leila De Lima, on her 1st birthday as a free woman after almost 7 years of detention at the Archdiocesan Shrine of Mary, Queen of Peace (EDSA Shrine), EDSA corner Ortigas Avenue, Quezon City, August 27, 2024. The mass presided over by Bishop Teodoro Bacani INQUIRER PHOTO / NIÑO JESUS ORBETA

A Muntinlupa judge has denied the government’s bid to overturn the acquittal of former Sen. Leila de Lima in her third and last drug case, citing the principle of double jeopardy.

In a four-page order dated Aug. 7 but made public only on Thursday, presiding Judge Gener Gito of Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court Branch 206 dismissed the prosecution’s motion for consideration in his order granting the demurrer to evidence of De Lima and her co-accused.

READ: Leila de Lima acquittal sealed as Muntinlupa court denies MR

“The dismissal of a criminal case through the avenue of demurrer to evidence is tantamount to acquittal. Thus, such order of the court cannot be appealed as it will place the accused [in] double jeopardy,” Gito said.

Double jeopardy refers to the constitutional protection against being tried or punished more than once for the same offense as provided under Section 21, Article III of the 1987 Constitution.

A demurrer is a motion filed by the accused seeking the dismissal of a case on the basis that the prosecution’s evidence is insufficient to support a criminal conviction. If granted, it results in an acquittal by the court.

According to Gito, the only way to vacate a judgment of acquittal is by demonstrating that the court, in granting the demurrer to evidence, committed grave abuse of discretion— something the prosecution failed to establish.

No proof of abuse

“The prosecution, in its motion for reconsideration, did not even ascribe grave abuse of discretion on the part of the Court,” the judge noted, adding that the prosecution also failed to point
to any instance in the court’s order where such a conclusion could be construed as an encroachment into grave abuse of discretion.

The Muntinlupa court said that the arguments in the motion for reconsideration mainly dealt with how the court appreciated the evidence presented by the prosecution.

On June 24, De Lima, a vocal critic of former President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody drug war, was acquitted of all drug charges filed against her by the previous administration after the court granted her demurrer to evidence.

The Muntinlupa court ruled that the prosecution failed to establish the guilt of all the accused, citing a lack of evidence to prove a conspiracy among De Lima, former Bureau of Corrections director Franklin Bucayu, and other respondents to engage in illegal drug trading within the New Bilibid Prison.

The former senator and justice secretary was released from detention in Camp Crame in November last year after Gito granted her bail petition. De Lima was charged and arrested in 2017
on what she claims were baseless charges in retaliation for the Senate investigation she initiated into Duterte’s drug war.