Prosecutor who cleared Lim, Espinosa says he was not paid

One of the state prosecutors who recommended the dismissal of drug charges against self-confessed drug distributor Kerwin Espinosa and Cebu businessman Peter Lim denied on Thursday, March 15, that he was paid to drop the case.

Aristotle Reyes, a former assistant state prosecutor who was promoted to the Regional Trial Court a month after the ruling was issued, maintained that the case was weak.

“Actually medyo syempre as a former prosecutor nakakalungkot na parang ganyan ‘yung naging resulta nung trabaho namin na hindi naman kami pwedeng mag-decide against sa isang tao na wala namang ebidensya at dahil lang sa public clamor (I am sad that this happened. We could not pin down a person without evidence or just because of public clamor),” he said in a radio interview early Thursday.

“Pero we welcome the investigation. We will submit to the in- vestigation kasi para ma-clear din kami kung ano ‘yung mga insinuations na sinasabi against us (But we welcome the investigation. We will submit to the investigation to clear our names),” he added, referring to the investigation that Justice Vitaliano Aguirre II ordered on him and other prosecutors who recommended the dismissal of the case.

Reyes, now a judge in Lucena City, Quezon, said he and state prosecutor Michael John Humarang based their decision on the evidence presented to them.

Based on what the CIDG presented, the case was very weak. There was only one witness. They had a corroborative witness but they did not present him. There was another witness who, when asked to testify in court, recanted,” he said.

“Hindi kami pwedeng kumuha ng ebidensya para sa parties. Otherwise magiging lawyers kami ng CIDG (We can’t procure the evidence for the parties. Otherwise, we’d be like CIDG lawyers),” he said.

“Kung in the course of our preliminary investigation nakita namin during the Senate hearing may admission itong si kerwin Espinosa, kunin natin ang transcript nito, hindi namin trabaho yan. Otherwise, kami na ang nag-iipon ng ebidensya in favor ng CIDG. Trabaho yan ng CIDG. Bakit hindi nila nagawa yan?” he added.

Reyes and Humarang issued on December 20, 2017 the 41-page resolution dropping the drug charges filed by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) Major Crimes Investigation Unit (MICU) against Espinosa, Lim, Peter Co, Marcelo Adorco, Max Miro, Lovely Impal and at least 15 others including their alleged accomplices.

The prosecutors said in its resolution that the statement of the CIDG’s sole witness, Adorco, was “rife with inconsistencies and contradictions, and run against the standards of human experience and the logical course of reality.” /