Senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan has urged the Department of Justice (DOJ) to hold accountable the prosecutors involved in the controversial move to reverse the acquittal of former senator and Mamamayang Liberal party-list Rep. Leila de Lima in her final drug case.
Describing the panel’s actions as a “blatant abuse of the justice system,” Pangilinan said the 10-member team of DOJ prosecutors should face administrative and criminal charges for allegedly engaging in malicious prosecution, unethical conduct, and gross ignorance of the law.
While DOJ Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla has since ordered the withdrawal of the motion for reconsideration, Pangilinan insisted that the act already caused damage that must not go unpunished.
“This is not only harassment and a deliberate act of injustice against someone who has suffered seven years in detention over baseless charges,” he stressed. “It is also a misuse of prosecutorial power and an affront to the judiciary.”
The DOJ panel, led by Provincial Prosecutor Ramoncito Bienvenido Ocampo Jr., included nine other prosecutors: Blas Tuliao, Laurence Joel Taliping, Leilia Llanes, Evangeline Viudez-Canobas, Darwin Cañete, Rudy Ricamora Jr., John Quincy Carandang, Wendell Bendoval, and Alfred Joseph Jamora.
De Lima was acquitted in all drug-related charges filed during the previous administration. The final case, dismissed earlier this year, was followed by a motion for reconsideration that was met with public backlash.
