Court junks last De Lima drug case

Former Senator Leila de Lima has been acquitted in the last of three drug-related cases filed against her under the previous administration. This after the Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 206 granted her demurrer to evidence on 24 June, leading to the junking of case 17-167.

De Lima filed the demurrer on 20 March, arguing insufficient evidence against her in the case. With the ruling, all three cases filed against her by the Department of Justice (DoJ) in February 2017 have been dismissed.

Previously, Muntinlupa courts dismissed the two other cases, 17-165 and 17-166, in 2021 and 2023, respectively.

A demurrer to evidence, according to a Supreme Court ruling, is filed by an accused after the prosecution rests seeking the dismissal of the case due to insufficient evidence.

If granted, the plea amounts to an acquittal and prevents any further prosecution for the same offense under the principle of double jeopardy.

Initially, the DoJ charged De Lima, as Justice secretary, and others with illegal drug trading. The charges were later amended to conspiracy to commit illegal drug trading.

In case 17-167, the DoJ alleged that between March 2013 and May 2015, De Lima with former Bureau of Corrections director Franklin Jesus Bucayu, Ronnie Dayan, Joenel Sanchez and Jose Adrian Dera used inmates at the New Bilibid Prison to sell and trade dangerous drugs with the proceeds amounting to P70 million.

On 10 November 2023, the Muntinlupa RTC Branch 206 granted bail of P300,000 each to De Lima and her co-accused allowing for their release. The court found that “the prosecution was not able to discharge its burden of establishing that the guilt of the accused is strong.”

De Lima was released from detention after more than six years, dating back to her arrest in 2017.

“What is significant in this case is that almost all of the most important evidence of the prosecution had been presented during the hearing for bail and therefore was passed upon by the Honorable Court in its 10 November 2023 order declaring that the prosecution’s evidence was not strong, thereby granting herein accused her application for bail,” De Lima said in her plea for a demurrer to evidence.

The DoJ had yet to react to the court decision at press time.