FORMER Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Atty. Salvador Panelo strongly disagrees with the court’s decision to acquit former Senator Leila de Lima of her drug case.
For De lima, spending almost 7 years in prison was an absolute injustice.
Atty. Panelo says she may have escaped the law of the land, but she cannot escape the law of karma.
“I am against the court’s decision,” according to Atty. Salvador ‘Sal’ Panelo, Former Chief Presidential Legal Counsel.
Panelo is against the acquittal of De Lima of her third and final drug case.
The decision of the Muntinlupa Regional Trial court on Monday June 24th, 2024 granted the camp of De Lima’s demurrer to evidence request.
A demurrer to evidence is a petition which requests the court to dismiss a case for insufficient evidence.
The court may say that there is insufficient evidence in the said case against the former senator, but for Atty. Panelo, what matters is the fact that there is evidence against the accused De Lima.
Meanwhile, Panelo stressed that the appreciation of the court on the weight of the recantation of the witnesses favorable to the accused is contrary to the jurisprudence and supreme court’s ruling on the unreliability and inadmissibility of recantation.
“Before a recantation is given weight, there must be evidence that the recanted testimony was made under duress. No such evidence was presented before the court hence the previous testimonies of the recanting witnesses against De Lima should have not been disregarded. Moreover, there was credible evidence extant on the record for a conviction,” stated Atty. Salvador ‘Sal’ Panelo, Former Chief Presidential Legal Counsel.
It is not unknown to the public that De Lima has attacked the character of Former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte several times. But not once did Duterte sue her.
Meanwhile, Panelo highlighted the processes De Lima went through as an accused.
“Number one, [former] President Duterte did not file the case against her. Number two, she was subjected to what is called a preliminary investigation,” Atty. Panelo added.
“So, the panel of prosecutors said there is probable cause,” he added.
“In other words, the accused underwent two processes which is why she cannot say that there was an injustice. [Former] President Duterte did not interfere. He did not meddle with the process,” he stated.
For De Lima, her almost 7 years behind bars was an injustice.
But for Atty. Panelo, this was the right payment for the crimes committed by the former lawmaker.
“Because the accused – the former senator – said that what happened to her was a grave injustice. Meanwhile, I said in my statement, there is no injustice because if it was true that you were not at fault in this case against you involving illegal drugs, your seven years behind bars is your payment for the crime you committed against former President Arroyo when you violated the Supreme Court’s order not to prevent former President Arroyo from flying to another country to get medical treatment as she was sick. She prevented it, had her arrested until she was put behind bars, and then got acquitted. That was her fault which she did not get sued for. That’s why I said, those seven years, that is your payment,” added Atty. Panelo.
“That is what is called the law of karma – the law of karma has finally caught up with her. She may have escaped from the law of the land but she cannot escape from the law of karma,” he added.
In the end, the former chief presidential legal counsel gave an advice to the former senator publicly, and that is to move on.
“Move on. And learn from the lessons of the past. Learn from what had happened to you in the past years.”
“Because if you do not learn from those lessons, they are bound to happen again,” he ended.