Former senator and ML Party-list Representative-elect Leila De Lima said that the acquittal decision on the third drug case she faced under the Duterte administration cannot be reversed in respect to her rights against double jeopardy.

In a television interview, De Lima explained that the Court of Appeals’ (CA) decision to revoke the Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court’s (RTC) acquittal of the third drug case was ‘confusing’, yet what was clear to her legal team was that the decision did not say that the acquittal was wrong.

“What is clear to us is that the acquittal cannot be reversed. The decision did not say that the acquittal was wrong. If you read the whole text of the decision, it is about Judge (Abraham Joseph) Alcantara, the way he wrote the decision, saying that it was unclear… to put it blankly, it was not a well-written decision,” De Lima said.

De Lima said the CA’s decision did not call for a re-trial of the third drug case on July 2024, involving her and her former driver Ronnie Dayan.

“The decision does not say that there will be a re-trial because they cannot do that, for it will be a clear violation of my rights against double jeopardy,” De Lima explained.

Under the Philippine Constitution, an individual cannot be prosecuted twice for the same offense after a valid conviction or acquittal.

In a press briefing, Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman George Garcia said it doesn't see the need to suspend the proclamation of de Lima and ML, which occupy the 14th spot in the party-list race, as among the winners in the May elections.

"We don't see any reason to suspend the proclamation of that personality and her party-list group because there has been no final conviction. There is also no pending case against the said party-list before us," said Garcia.

"This latest development has no effect on their proclamation," he added.

De Lima said that she and her legal team do not believe that the CA’s claim of the acquittal was not well-written.

“We read the decision again, and it is a well-written decision,” De Lima said.

De Lima and her legal team have not received the official copy of the CA decision but are discussing their next move.

“We may file for a motion for clarification or a motion for reconsideration, but we will first discuss our next move,” De Lima added.

The Muntinlupa RTC junked the third and last drug case against De Lima on June 24, 2024, after the former senator was imprisoned in Camp Crame from February 2017 to June 2024 during the Duterte administration for alleged involvement in illegal drug trade within the New Bilibid Prison when was secretary of the Department of Justice. Yzabela Velez-White/DMS