Listen to your conscience, De Lima tells would-be witness

Sen. Leila de Lima

Detained Sen. Leila de Lima called on former Bureau of Corrections chief Rafael Ragos to listen to his conscience, as she feared that more lies would be coming her way with the “suspicious” move to turn him into a state witness.

De Lima, in a statement, appealed to Ragos and Ronnie Dayan, her former driver and another coaccused, to resist pressures on them to give false statements against her.

She questioned the move to discharge Ragos from the illegal drug trading charges slapped against them in exchange for his testimony for the prosecution.

“It’s suspicious and fishy. By turning Ragos into a witness for the prosecution, it looks like there’s a done deal already, a deal for more lies,” she said.

Both Ragos and Dayan know that she is not involved in the drug trade and the charges against her are manufactured, she said.

“I hope they listen to their conscience. They should be true to themselves. They should man up. They should not lie. They should not allow themselves to be used by Duterte’s lackeys,” she said.

But she also said she understood their plight, as they and their families were probably being threatened and pressured.

“I am praying for them,” she added.

Ragos earlier testified in a congressional inquiry that he delivered P10 million to De Lima’s house in 2012. He handed the money to Dayan, he said.

The money supposedly came from drug convicts at New Bilibid Prison and was allegedly to be used for De Lima’s senatorial bid.

De Lima insisted that she was not involved in the drug trade and said the charges were invented to silence her criticism of President Duterte and his allies.

“They are trying so hard to weave the lies of the so-called witnesses against me. These claims are as incredible and as clearly false as this administration’s attempts to deny the existence of EJKs (extrajudicial killings),” she said.

De Lima has been one of the President’s most vocal critics.

Before Mr. Duterte came to Malacañang, De Lima, as head of the Commission on Human Rights, investigated the alleged death squads in Davao City where Mr. Duterte was the longtime mayor.

As senator, she also initiated an inquiry on the EJKs of drug suspects in the country.