The Public Attorney’s Office, in an official statement, said the claims made by a certain Mike Navallo on his Twitter account on 10 February 2023 were proven false and misleading in a court hearing.
Navallo posted on social media that former Officer-in-Charge of the Bureau of Correction Rafael Ragos testified in court that PAO Chief Persida Rueda-Acosta was among those who pressured him to testify against former Senator Leila De Lima
“Mr. Ragos never made such statement against Chief Acosta when he was presented in court today, 10 February 2023, and previously in other hearings, as a witness in one of the cases filed against former Sen. De Lima,” the PAO statement read.
According to the PAO, this false claim, which lacks any basis from official records of the case, is being seen as a desperate attempt to malign the reputation of the PAO and confuse the public on the issues at hand in the ongoing case against De Lima.
The PAO added that the accusations against public attorneys Rigel Salvador and Demiteer Huerta, of pressuring Ragos to make an affidavit and manipulating his statements, have also been deemed as baseless fabrications.
“We appeal to everyone to prevent any further spread of this misinformation,” the PAO stated.
Likewise, the accusations of Ragos that public attorneys Salvador and Huerta pressured him to make an affidavit and “put words into his mouth” are merely fabricated and a figment of Ragos’ imagination, geared towards making his recantation appear to be convincing and credible, the PAO added.
The PAO has urged the public to refrain from spreading this misleading information and to rely only on official records and statements made in court for accurate and reliable information.