Leila can’t celebrate too early, says Roque

Opposition senator Leila de Lima has no reason to celebrate despite her acquittal in one of three drug-related cases she is facing before the Muntinlupa courts, Malacañang said Thursday.

In a televised briefing, presidential spokesperson Secretary Harry Roque noted that the senator remains in jail after she failed to secure the dismissal of two other cases pending against her.

“She remains in jail because she still has two cases against her. So, why should she celebrate?” Roque asked.

The Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court on Wednesday junked one of De Lima’s drug cases for insufficient evidence, a ruling which came just days before she marked four years of detention.

The court held that the prosecution failed to establish a conspiracy between De Lima and her co-accused Jose Adrian Dera, who was identified by the Department of Justice as her nephew, that they benefitted from the illegal drug trade inside the national penitentiary.

“While there exists a factual link that Peter Co delivered money through his bank transactions, this Court is convinced that the prosecution did not present sufficient evidence to establish Dera’s relationship or connection with De Lima,” the court said in its ruling.

Meanwhile, the same court denied De Lima’s demurrer to evidence in connection with another drug case where her alleged former lover Ronnie Dayan was named as her co-accused.

A staunch critic of the Duterte administration, De Lima has been detained since February 2017 at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center in Camp Crame over allegations that she allowed the illegal drug trade in the New Bilibid Prison during her term as justice secretary.