NBI agents on Monday afternoon presented the wife of one of the high- profile convicts detained in Camp Aguinaldo who implicated Senator Leila de Lima in the illegal drug trade inside the New Bilibid Prison when she was Justice secretary.
They also presented Lalaine Madrigal-Martinez, wife of convict Noel Martinez, to shed light on the alleged attempt to pay her husband and the other convicts P100 million to retract their testimonies against De Lima.
The agents are also looking into the alleged ambush of Lalaine Martinez who claims it happened before midnight on Feb. 23, when she was on her way home to Carmona village in Makati when her sport utility vehicle was fired upon by unidentified men.
Last week, Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II said he had information that the alleged bribe try came from Martinez.
The NBI agents said they were in possession of a recording from Martinez that would show he and the other convicts were offered P100 million to retract their testimonies against De Lima.
“It [the recording] will undergo authentication,” NBI Deputy Director Ferdinand Lavin said.
Lalaine Martinez refused to provide details on the recording.
She declined to confirm Aguirre’s claim that former senator Jamby Madrigal and Laguna Rep. Marlyn Alonte-Naguiat were behind the offer to the Bilibid inmates to retract their testimonies against De Lima on or before Feb. 25.
She also denied she was a relative of Madrigal.
“When I was nearing my home, that’s when I felt the pain. I also saw that the wound was not that deep. I also felt that it would be more dangerous to go out. I did not notice that I was hit. I just saw blood dripping from my right arm,” Martinez said.
She said she called up a friend to assist her.
Aguirre said there was no official report on the incident because Martinez did not inform the police about it.
In their initial findings, the NBI said the bullet’s trajectory was downward, and that the bullet might have come from a 9-mm pistol.
“At this point in time we cannot say in certainty that was an ambush,” Lavin said.
“What was established is that the [Honda] CRV was fired upon and that there is a single bullet hole in the windshield.”
