Former Supreme Court spokesman Ted Te and Liberal Party president Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman have hit the “swift” acquittal of the son of Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla on charges of illegal drug possession.
“A Las Piñas trial court has acquitted an accused of drug charges in what is, by our standards, record time,” Te said in a Twitter post.
This as the 39-year-old Juanito Jose Remulla III, who was arrested in October last year after receiving a parcel containing 893.91 grams of high-grade marijuana valued at P1.25 million, walked free on Friday.
“Perhaps the Muntinlupa trial court can consider doing the same for the falsely accused Leila de Lima sooner rather than later,” Te added.
Lagman also referenced the case of De Lima, who has been in prison since 2017 over alleged links to the illegal drug trade in the New Bilibid Prisons, in reacting to Remulla’s acquittal.
“It is grossly unfortunate that the exoneration of a Remulla scion was swift but the liberation of former Sen. Leila de Lima is stranded in the dark tunnel of injustice,” Lagman said.
Remulla…The Justice Secretary, for his part, said he hopes his eldest son can redeem himself now that he has been cleared of the drug charges.
“I did not interfere to the process,” the elder Remulla said, adding that “bashers” are “part of the life that we live as leaders of this country.”
“You can never make everybody happy. There are people who will always disagree, and there will always be critics no matter how much you do for the country or for the people,” he said.
Former Bayan Muna lawmaker Carlos Isagani Zarate, a lawyer by profession, said Remulla’s acquittal showed the disparity between the poor and privileged Filipinos in terms of access to a fair justice system.
“Unfortunately, while probably this ‘due process’ works for Remulla, it may also even reinforce the tragic reality that the Philippines has a dichothomized justice system: one that caters to the privileged and powerful and one that steps on the poor, vulnerable and underprivileged,” Zarate said.
“While poor families or victims of trumped up charges languish in jail for years even decades, the young Remulla’s case is not even three months old,” he added.
