INQUIRER/ MARIANNE BERMUDEZ
Senator Leila De Lima on Thursday sued Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre, accusing him of forcing witnesses to fabricate evidence against her and make her the alleged ringleader of the New Bilibid Prison drug trade.
In her criminal complaint filed before the Office of the Ombudsman, De Lima accused Aguirre of using the “whole Department of Justice (DOJ) machinery to orchestrate and execute the malicious prosecution of complainant as the alleged leader of the New Bilibid Prison drug lords.”
In her criminal complaint, De Lima also accused Aguirre of preventing the prosecution of law enforcement officials who carried out the summary killings of drug suspects in implementing the administration’s war on drugs.
READ: De Lima sues Aguirre, accuses him of stopping prosecution of EJK suspects
In the same complaint, De Lima said Aguirre led the Bilibid drug investigation based on testimonies of convicted drug lords, and based on “coerced statements” of former DOJ officials and employees.
De Lima was detained at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center on drug charges in connection with the alleged Bilibid drug trade.
De Lima said Aguirre used the attached agencies such as the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO), the Office of the Solicitor Genera, and the Bureau of Corrections, “to orchestrate, coordinate, and implement a massive evidence-fabrication operation against complainant.”
De Lima said Aguirre gave unwarranted benefits to the Bilibid convicts who testified against her, and thus should be held liable for violations of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.
Aguirre, “using his power as DOJ Secretary and administrative supervisor of the BuCor, gave special prison privileges to the same criminal convicts he used to testify against complainant at the House inquiry, in a clear case of graft and corruption,” De Lima said in her complaint.
De Lima drags Cam, Acosta
De Lima dragged into the case her most vocal critic Sandra Cam for allegedly threatening a DOJ technical staffer Jesusa “Susan” Francisco to testify against De Lima as the supposed bagwoman of former DOJ Undersecretary Francisco Baraan III.
De Lima said Francisco sought the help of PAO chief Persida Acosta, “who made it appear she was helping her by preparing several versions of her affidavit, but with the intent of using these against complainant.”
De Lima alleged Acosta ordered Francisco not to tell anyone that Cam was forcing her to be a witness against De Lima.
De Lima said Acosta, who served as counsel for the Bilibid drug convicts during the House probe on the alleged drug trade, even bought groceries for the inmates who testified against De Lima.
“Francisco also revealed that Acosta as PAO Chief and supposed counsel of the Bilibid drug lords testifying against complainant personally brought groceries every month for said inmates-witnesses,” De Lima said.
De Lima also accused Acosta of trying to convince former Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) executive Col. Ferdinand Marcelino to testify against De Lima on the drug trade.
De Lima said when Acosta announced that Marcelino was already willing to testify against De Lima, the Department of Justice dropped the drug-trafficking charges earlier filed against Marcelino.
Bilibid drug trade witnesses coerced
De Lima said the Bilibid convicts and former Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) and DOJ officials were forced to testify against De Lima in the House of Representatives inquiry into the alleged drug trade.
De Lima said the wife of Jaybee Sebastian, a Bilibid drug lord who testified that he raised campaign funds for De Lima, texted a congressman that her husband was being forced to testify against De Lima.
“In her text, she said that Sebastian could no longer withstand the pressure being exerted upon him, and that in any case, complainant would understand if he is forced to testify against her, considering that she was innocent anyway,” De Lima said in her complaint.
Sebastian, De Lima said, was later forced to testify after a riot at the NBP broke out in September last year. He was injured while another inmate, Tony Co, was killed. The other injured convicts – Peter Co and Vicente Sy – also testified against De Lima in the House probe.
De Lima said it was Solicitor General Jose Calida who gave Sebastian favors, calling up Bilibid OIC Rolando Asuncion over the phone and ordering Sebastian to be brought back to the Maximum Security Compound of the New Bilibid Prison.
De Lima said her reliable sources revealed that the other Bilibid convicts were subjected to “various forms of pressure and undue influence, such as promises of pardon, commutation of sentence, and other forms of executive clemency.”
The Bilibid convicts were also “at the complete mercy of their jailers and other authorities, with their very lives or safety at risk if they do not cooperate,” De Lima said, citing the stabbing incident that almost killed Sebastian, Co and Sy.
“This was clearly exhibited in the September 18, 2016 Building 14 stabbing incident (albeit officially dubbed as a ‘prison riot’), where Jaybee Sebastian, Peter Co, and Vicente Sy finally agreed to testify against complainant, but only after they were stabbed multiple times and hospitalized inside the supposedly highly-secured Building 14 inside Bilibid by respondent’s prison goons Clarence Dongail, Tomas Donina, and Edcar Singco,” De Lima said in her complaint.
Sebastian was “operated on by, again, Sandra Cam,” who while not being a government official gained access to the Bilibid witnesses, and whose orders were being followed by the Bilibid officials to give privileges to the inmate witnesses, De Lima said.
‘Dayan, other witnesses saved their own skin’
De Lima said the other witnesses also came up to her for help – former BuCor acting director Rafael Ragos, her former driver and lover Ronnie Dayan, and her former security aide Joenel Sanchez – and told her they were being coerced by key officials of the Duterte administration to testify against her.
But before she could help them, the witnesses already agreed to testify against De Lima “to save their own skin” and to stop the intimidation against them, De Lima said.
Dayan, during the House probe, admitted delivering drug kickbacks for De Lima. Meanwhile, Sanchez divulged steamy details while lawmakers feasted on the affair between De Lima and Dayan.
“Other witnesses against complainant, viz., former Acting BuCor Director Rafael Ragos, former DOJ security aides Ronnie Dayan and PSG personnel Joenel Sanchez, relayed to herein complainant their request for legal assistance, complaining of the pressure, threats and coercion they were receiving from Duterte Administration officials, including herein respondent,” De Lima said.
“Before complainant can respond to their requests, said individuals already agreed to testify against complainant to save their own skin and to stop further acts of threat, intimidation and coercion against them and their families,” she added.
‘Aguirre gave benefits to Bilibid inmates’
In sum, De Lima said Aguirre, with the help of his subordinates Calida and Acosta, and even aided by a “shady and underworld character such as Sandra Cam,” fabricated charges against De Lima to fulfill the whims of their ultimate superior President Rodrigo Duterte.
De Lima is the most vocal critic of the President, having investigated his alleged links to the Davao Death Squad.
“In sum, respondent, aided in great part by his subordinate officials such as Solicitor General Jose Calida and PAO Chief Persida Acosta, as well as by shady and underworld characters such as Sandra Cam, led an evidence-manufacturing effort for the purpose of not only destroying complainant’s person and demolishing her reputation, but more importantly in order to be able to file bogus and fake non-bailable criminal charges against her, so that she may languish in jail, as she is already languishing at present, to fulfill the wishes of respondent’s boss, President Rodrigo Roa Duterte,” De Lima said in her complaint.