A Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court (RTC) has junked the Department of Justice (DOJ) panel of the prosecutor’s petition to reverse the acquittal of detained former Senator Leila de Lima in her second illegal drug case.

In a resolution dated July 6 but released only to the media on July 29, Muntinlupa RTC Branch 24 president Judge Abraham Joseph Alcantara said the motion was dismissed due to lack of merit.

“Every acquittal becomes final immediately upon promulgation and cannot be recalled for correction or amendment,” Alcantara said.

He added that granting the DOJ's motion is a violation of the “Constitutional prohibition against double jeopardy because it would effectively reopen the prosecution and subject the accused to a second jeopardy despite their acquittal”.

Alcantara also stated that the Muntinlupa court finds no compelling reason to reconsider the former Senator’s acquittal.

“Here the prosecution was fully afford due process and given all the opportunity to present its case. However, upon appreciation of the totality of evidence presented by the both parties, this Court found reasonable doubt to acquit the accused,” he added.

Last May 30, the DOJ state prosecutors filed a motion for reconsideration which seeks to reverse the ruling penned by Alcantara.

In the filed motion, DOJ prosecutors questioned the "motive behind the sudden retraction" of star witness former Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) officer-in-charge (OIC) Rafael Ragos.

"[A]fter more than four years of earsplitting silence, the witness sang another song and recanted his previous testimony and that the news came as a bombshell eight days before the 2022 Presidential Election, where the accused Sen. De Lima was seeking re-election," they said.

De Lima was acquitted in her second charge on May 12.