De Lima and Dayan free from Bribery charges issued by the Ombudsman
OMBUDSMAN – The office of the Ombudsman junks the bribery case against the former Senator Leila de Lima and his ex-aid Ronnie Dayan, as it found insufficient probable cause for the accusation.
In a nine pages resolution released on Jan. 5 but only made in public on Tuesday, the Ombudsman found no probable cause to prosecute the former senator for bribery.
Based on a report on from CNN, a lawsuit was launched by the Ombudsman investigators accusing De Lima and her assistant of conspiring to extort money from the self-described drug lord Kerwin Espinosa.
De Lima’s former assistant testified against her that she received an eight million pesos bribe money and used it as funding for the senatorial campaign in 2016.
In the resolution, there were conspicuous inconsistencies in the statements presented by the complainant according to the Special Investigation team of the Office of the Ombudsman.
“The inconsistencies in the testimonies of the complainant’s witnesses can’t be brushed aside as trivial or inconsequential,” according to the decision written by Ombudsman prosecutor Daniel Von Evan O. Panelo.
According to Panelo, the complainant’s testimony lacked a concise, precise, and consistent description of the facts, which is crucial for determining whether there was direct or indirect bribery.
As cited in the resolution, it “would prevent a reasonable mind from concluding that the respondents are probably guilty of the offenses charged against them.” This merely demonstrates the inconsistencies in the witness testimonies.
According to CNN, former Senator De Lima has been jailed since 2017 over allegations that she participated in drug trafficking at the National Penitentiary while serving as the late President Aquino’s Justice secretary. As a result of her outburst and criticism of former president Duterte, she fought for her innocence and claimed that the Duterte government had made up the charges against her.
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