HOUSE Deputy Minority Leader and Mamamayang Liberal (ML) Partylist Rep. Leila de Lima on Thursday submitted a formal letter-complaint, requesting Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla to initiate an administrative investigation against the members of the Department of Justice (DOJ) Panel who handled her three trumped-up drug cases, for Grave Misconduct and Gross Ignorance of the Law.
In the letter-complaint submitted through her legal counsel, Atty. Dino de Leon, De Lima asked the DOJ to exercise its disciplinary authority and initiate a formal administrative investigation against the prosecutors “who allowed themselves to become instruments of persecution, not prosecution.”
“Through my steadfast resolve, and with the tireless efforts of my lawyers, I have been acquitted of all charges filed against me. But the pursuit of justice ought not to end there. There must be a reckoning for those who abused their authority, manipulated the prosecutorial process, and orchestrated this flagrant perversion of the law,” De Lima said.
“The cases against me were not built on evidence, but on coercion and lies, orchestrated within the DOJ itself during the time of Rodrigo Duterte. Laway lang ang puhunan; tinahi-tahing kasinungalingan lang ang ginawang batayan. The said prosecutors willfully proceeded with this sham,” she added.
According to De Lima, the sworn recantation of former Bureau of Corrections Officer-in-Charge Rafael Ragos in one of the three trumped-up illegal drug charges filed against her exposed the grand conspiracy of lies under the Duterte regime.
It can be recalled that Ragos confessed that he was coerced by then-Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II to provide false allegations against De Lima.
“These prosecutors turned a blind eye to the glaring absence of material evidence and the dubious nature of their so-called star witness, even after Ragos himself admitted the story was pure fabrication. This constitutes Grave Misconduct,”. De Lima pointed out.
The same DOJ panel of prosecutors also filed a second Motion for Reconsideration on July 14, 2025, to reverse De Lima’s second acquittal in the same case. This, according to De Lima, “is a remedy that is unequivocally barred by the constitutional prohibition against double jeopardy, and amounts to Gross Ignorance of the Law.”
“That the above motion was reportedly filed without the imprimatur of Secretary Remulla and Prosecutor General Richard Fadullon, which was later withdrawn upon their instruction, only highlights the panel’s rogue and abusive conduct. Their persistence was not a simple error in judgment; it was a malicious attempt to prolong my ordeal and subvert the rule of law,” she added.
The lady solon from Bicol underscored the importance of exacting accountability from abusive prosecutors as the “integrity of the DOJ has been deeply eroded by their politically motivated persecution.”
De Lima also expressed her readiness to cooperate with any action necessary to investigate and hold the DOJ prosecutors accountable for their unjust actions.
“The Prosecutors who lent their authority to this travesty must not be allowed to continue wielding the powers of the State with impunity. Their actions were not a simple mistake; they were a tyrannical exercise of power that cost me years of my life and eroded the foundations of our justice system,” she said.
“Kung nagawa nila ito sa isang abogado, dating CHR Commissioner, dating Justice Secretary, at mambabatas, ano pang pipigil sa kanila para gawin din ito sa karaniwang Pilipino? Hindi ko palalampasin ang kalapastanganang ito. Managot ang dapat managot!” she added.
