Press Release
December 9, 2019

Dispatch from Crame No. 669:
Sen. Leila M. de Lima on the rewards given to witnesses and complainants in the drug cases against her, the latest being the reported looming reinstatement of Reynaldo Esmeralda as NBI Deputy Director

12/9/19

Convicted felons were granted immunity. Some of them transferred to military camps, presumably with more comfortable quarters than hell hole Bilibid. God knows what other concessions were promised them in exchange for perjured testimonies. Pardon perhaps or other forms of executive clemency for their early release, and non-freezing or non-sequestration of their assets?

Duterte operators and complainants and their lawyer in the cases filed against me in the DOJ were appointed to government posts. Sandra Cam. Dante Jimenez. Atty. Eduardo Bringas. Ruel Lasala.

Rafael Ragos and Jovencito Ablen, despite being exposed for corrupt or illegal activities, were retained at the NBI, never charged administratively or criminally, and placed under the Witness Protection Program (WPP) with its concomitant benefits, in exchange for their own lies against me.

Worse, Ragos was eventually excluded as a co-accused in one of the drug cases despite revelations of his illicit dealings with Bilibid drug lords. Most appalling is the recently reported reinstatement of Ragos to his former position as NBI Deputy Director, to the chagrin of NBI old-timers.

Here comes another former NBI Deputy Director, Reynaldo Esmeralda. Another shameless liar who, like Ragos, Ablen and convicts, lied under oath. In his testimony last Friday, Esmeralda ostensibly "corroborated" the ludicrous claim of alleged delivery of money to my residence on 2 occasions in 2012, saying that Ablen called him up immediately after such deliveries and reported the alleged incident.

Clearly hearsay and an absolute lie! Ablen never mentioned in his own testimony months ago that he made such a call to Esmeralda. He never mentioned Esmeralda at all. In fact, in the Complaint-Affidavit filed with the DOJ, with Esmeralda as one of the complainants, nowhere is such allegation about Ablen confiding in Esmeralda found. Esmeralda, for his part, never reported it or raised such disturbing matter to anyone in any forum. He kept mum about it until now, or seven (7) years later. Malinaw na isa na naman itong pahabol na imbentong kuwento.

This guy, like most of the inmates-witnesses, has an axe to grind against me. He blames me for his and Lasala's removal and replacement as then NBI Deputy Directors by then President Aquino due to integrity issues.

And guess what? Per a recent media report, Esmeralda, like Ragos, is set to be reinstated to his former post as NBI Deputy Director. Reward na naman!

Kawawang NBI. Nagiging tapunan ng mga basura, rats of the institution.

I hope that, by now, the NBI has realized that it too was used in this malevolent scheme when it acted as the public complainant in the case before the DOJ, blindly accepting the bogus stories of the convicts and other perjured witnesses, without the benefit of a legitimate independent probe.

What a sad and disgusting state of affairs!

Ganyan kadesperado ang mga persecutors ko. All they care about is making sure that I "rot in jail," as forcefully and repeatedly proclaimed by their master. They don't care about the havoc this whole charade called the De Lima trial has brought to our justice institutions. A blatant abuse of power!

I say to them: Truth will ultimately catch up on them. And there's nothing more dangerous than the Truth. ###

(Access the handwritten copy of Dispatch from Crame No. 669, here: https://issuu.com/senatorleilam.delima/docs/dispatch_from_crame_no_669)

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