After confessed drug lord Rolan “Kerwin” Espinosa retracted his allegations of giving money to Senator Leila de Lima, Amnesty International renewed its call for the Philippine government to free the senator who has been detained for five years.
Amnesty International Philippines Section Director Butch Olano said Espinosa’s retraction is “veritable proof” that De Lima “is a victim of political persecution, targeted and singled out by the Duterte administration for her legitimate work as a human rights defender and duly-elected legislator.”
Espinosa on Thursday recanted the allegations he made against the senator and apologized for linking her to the drug trade, saying that he did it due to alleged pressure, coercion and intimidation against him and his family. He said he made the allegations against De Lima in two Senate hearings in 2016 because he was “misled by the police” into signing his affidavit, supposedly in exchange for the dropping of drug charges against him.
Olano said the contents of Espinosa’s counter-affidavit “is deeply disturbing” and continued that Amnesty International has repeatedly said that De Lima’s case stemmed from her criticism of President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody war on drugs – a claim that Malacañang has repeatedly denied.
Originally charged with 3 drug cases over her supposed hand in the proliferation of drugs in the New Bilibid Prison when she was Justice Secretary, De Lima has been incarcerated since February 2017 as the cases have dragged on. She has been acquitted in one case.
Although Espinosa is not a witness for the prosecution in the remaining cases against her, Filibon Tacardon, De Lima’s lawyer, said the recantation shows that testimony and evidence against the senator was fabricated.
“We have always believed that no matter the lies perpetrated by the coerced witnesses, in the end, the truth will still come out,” Tacardon said.
The Philippine justice system has already wasted five years in its quest to prove Senator Leila de Lima’s guilt while she remains under detention. Aside from the undue delay that is already a grave injustice against an elected official who is presumed innocent until proven guilty, this recantation by another witness who now claims to have been coerced and intimidated, should push the Justice Department to at the very least endeavor to speed up the delivery of justice in order to restore our trust in the system.*
