A Muntinlupa court has reopened the trial in one of two drug cases against former Sen. Leila de Lima just for a day on Friday.
In an order dated April 24, Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court Branch 204 Judge Abraham Joseph Alcantara granted the prosecution’s motion to reopen the trial to allow a Public Attorney’s Office lawyer to testify as a rebuttal witness.
PAO lawyer Demiteer Huerta was expected to testify in court yesterday, ABS-CBN News reported.
Huerta, PAO’s OIC for administrative service, is one of two PAO lawyers who assisted former Bureau of Corrections OIC Rafael Ragos in executing affidavits implicating De Lima in the illegal drug trade.
Ragos would later retract all his allegations against De Lima, claiming that former Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II had forced him to execute several affidavits. Aguirre denied the claim.
De Lima’s team had opposed the prosecution’s move to reopen the trial, saying the panel of prosecutors had already agreed to submit the case for decision and therefore waived the opportunity to present rebuttal evidence.
But the Muntinlupa court said the decision to reopen the trial is discretionary on the part of the court.
“There is no precise provision in the Rules of Court governing a motion to re-open a case for the reception of rebuttal evidence after a case has been submitted for decision but before judgment. It is a judicial action which is controlled only by the utmost interest of justice and rests entirely on the sound discretion of the Court,” it said.
“The Court does not shrink from its responsibility to receive evidence in order to ferret out the truth,” it added.
The court however said it would stick to the schedule for the promulgation of judgment, which it earlier set on May 12, 2023, where the court would announce its verdict on De Lima and co-accused Ronnie Dayan.
De Lima and Dayan are accused of receiving P10 million worth of alleged drug money, which Ragos allegedly personally delivered to De Lima’s house in Parañaque in 2012 supposedly to support De Lima’s senatorial campaign.
De Lima did not run for senator in the 2013 elections but in 2016.
In its order allowing the reopening of the trial, the court said the rebuttal witness “shall be fully presented in one day” and no motion for continuance will be allowed.
De Lima is expected to attend Friday’s hearing scheduled at 8:30 a.m.