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The Manila Times
THIS may strike some as counterintuitive, but the principal story that I see in the acquittal of former senator and justice secretary Leila de Lima in two of the three drug cases filed against her is not the victory of justice and innocence, but the failure of another Philippine administration in prosecuting a political opponent.
There is in the record a history of Filipino presidents taking the gloves off and arranging for the prosecution or persecution of their biggest political opponents, and throwing the machinery against them.
But strangely, this tactic has ended more often in failure than success.
This is manifest in three landmark cases.
1.
The strenuous effort of then-president Corazon Aquino to send to prison and political oblivion her former defense secretary Juan Ponce Enrile in , for complicity in the December coup attempt which nearly succeeded. To please her, her justice secretary and lawyers prepared a charge of rebellion complexed with murder ag