Press Release
May 5, 2022

Dispatch from Crame No. 1258:
Sen. Leila M. de Lima on Esmeralda's take on Ragos's court testimony

5/5/22

I saw the transcript of a media interview with former NBI Deputy Director Reynaldo Esmeralda aired last May 3. More than anything, I was actually amused reading it. Esmeralda claims that the House and court testimony of former BuCor OIC Rafael Ragos is shot full of holes ("maraming butas") and highly improbable.

But of course! This is what I have been saying from the very start. Ragos's previous testimony is so fantastic as to be credible. This is precisely what Ragos told the DOJ panel of prosecutors as stated in his recent affidavit of retraction. Ragos told them that they should not expect him to deliver a plausible testimony in court because "they are all lies".

Indeed, Ragos's previous false testimony should not have been presented at all in court by the DOJ panel of prosecutors. It is highly incredible and had all the signs of a bargained-for testimony. This has been our consistent and persistent assertion when we moved for a demurrer or dismissal of the case which, unfortunately, was denied by the court.

The question is: does Esmeralda realize that Ragos's false and coerced testimony is the only link to the fictional drug money that the court used in denying my demurrer? Without it, DOJ's fabricated case falls like a house of cards, even if Jovencio Ablen's equally perjured testimony corroborating Ragos is not retracted. In short, there is really no case against me. ###

(Access the handwritten version of Dispatch from Crame No.1258, here: https://issuu.com/senatorleilam.delima/docs/dispatch_no._1258)

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