Press Release
December 5, 2019

Dispatch from Crame No. 660:
Sen. Leila M. de Lima's Statement on the Reported Reinstatement of Rafael Ragos

12/5/19

The best example of how Duterte has used privileges and rewards on perjured witnesses to testify against me is none other than NBI official Rafael Ragos. Despite revelations linking him to corruption while he was BuCor-OIC, Ragos was reportedly ordered reinstated recently by Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra to his old office at the NBI as Deputy Director, after hibernating inside Persida Acosta's PAO office for months.

Ragos knows that his claim, in his testimonies before the House of Reps., the RTC and the Senate, of alleged delivery of money to my residence on two occasions is a BIG LIE. But he knows also, as he has reportedly bragged, that his perjured testimony is a vital thread in this administration's fabricated tapestry.

Kaya malakas ang loob ni Ragos na hingin kay Duterte na ibalik siya bilang NBI Deputy Director dahil na rin sa kanilang napagkasunduan ni dating Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II na ibabalik siya sa posisyon at hindi siya kakasuhan kapalit ng mga kasinungalingan niya laban sa akin.

Notwithstanding the discovery of his money-making ventures as OIC-BuCor, Ragos was given immunity and retained in NBI, drawing salary and benefits as NBI official and benefits from the Witness Protection Program and now, he is reinstated to his previous post as Deputy Director. From the time the DOJ withdrew Ragos's name from the Information filed in court, in exchange for a belated and newly-embellished affidavit, it was already a given that he successfully struck a deal with Duterte through Aguirre. Now he is reaping his reward.

I am sure the old-timers and honest officials and agents at the NBI don't like having Ragos around their office once again. In the first place, the NBI was adamant in its position that Ragos should be included in the Information originally filed against us, and they protested his eventual exclusion as an accused in the fabricated drug charges filed against me.

This is how desperate my persecutors are. They don't mind striking deals with convicted felons and other rotten characters like Ragos just to ensure my conviction. The NBI, as one of the country's premier law enforcement agencies, deserves better than to be another victim of Duterte's policy of recycling discredited and corrupt public officials. ###

(Access the handwritten version of Dispatch from Crame No. 660, here: https://issuu.com/senatorleilam.delima/docs/dispatch_660)

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