Philippine Senator Leila de Lima is one of the world’s best-known political prisoners. She is a lawyer, human rights activist, and politician. She has been locked up in a special cell for five years without trial.
𝗚𝗼𝗹𝗱𝗲𝗻 𝗦𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲
Senator de Lima is a graduate of De La Salle University. She took her law degree at San Beda University and passed her bar exam as the top 8th examinee last 1985. She was a staff member of Supreme Court Associate Justice Isagani Cruz from the year 1986-1989, the Secretary for the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal from the year 1993-1995, the Chairperson of the Commission on Human Rights from the year 2008-2010, and Secretary of the Department of Justice from the year 2010-2015.
She ran for Senator in the National Elections last 2016, where she was voted as the 12th highest senator candidate. She is awarded the MetroBank Foundation Professorial Chair for Public Service and Governance of 2015.
She is the author of Republic Act 11291, the Magna Carta of the Poor, and Republic Act 11310, An Act Institutionalizing the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps). Through her being the head of the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking, the Philippines was removed from the US Human Trafficking Watchlist.
𝗦𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻
Shortly after June 30, 2016, when President Rodrigo Duterte took office, Senator de Lima spoke of the increasing number of suspected drug offenders killed. Due to this, the President and other state officials began a campaign of harassment, against Senator de Lima, through public statements and a probe by the Lower House on drug trafficking inside the New Bilibid Prison.
Unmoved, Senator de Lima utilized her position as the then Chair of the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights to open a Senate Inquiry into the killings committed for the “war on drugs.”
She located key witnesses and confessed members of the Davao Death Squads, who were willing to testify before the Senate in September 2016.
After which, the allies of President Duterte brought ten people, seven of which being prison inmates, to testify before the Congress that drug money was paid to de Lima’s driver to aid in funding her senate campaign. It was later revealed that the prison inmates who testified received benefits in jail.
On February 24, 2017, Senator de Lima willingly surrendered to the authorities at the Senate, a day after the police attempted to serve the arrest warrant against her.
She was initially facing three charges under the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 for the non-bailable offense of trafficking drugs. Recently her orders were changed to a conspiracy of trading drugs. If she is found guilty, she is to face life imprisonment.
Senator de Lima continues to deny the charges against her fervently. She has dismissed the allegations, stating that it was attempted by the President and his political allies to silence and discredit her.
On July 18, 2019, the Philippine National Police (PNP) filed sedition charges against 36 high-profile figures, including the Vice President, Senator de Lima, Catholic bishops, lawyers, and other public figures.
The charges entail that the individuals are “spreading lies against the President, his family, and close associates, making them appear as illegal drug trade protectors.”
These charges were filed after the United Nations Human Rights Council, July 11, 2019, voted to investigate the extrajudicial killings committed by the Philippines for the anti-drugs campaign.
𝗗𝗲𝗳𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗗𝗲𝗳𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿
Last September 19, 2019, The Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission commenced a briefing entitled “Parliamentarians at Risk Around the World” with Vicente de Lima, the brother of Senator de Lima.
Last January 8, 2020, the United States Senate voted in passing a resolution to condemn the Philippines' Government for Senator de Lima's continued detention while calling for her immediate release.
Last February 17, 2021, a court in Muntinlupa acquitted Senator de Lima of one of her three conspiracy of committing drug trading charges. Unfortunately, she remains imprisoned for her two remaining charges.
Last March 22, 2021, Senator Dick Durbin, in his speech on the Senate floor, called for the release of leading human rights advocate Sen. Leila de Lima, who has then spent four years in prison.
Finally, in a letter by Senator Ed Markey, 10 Senators wrote to State Secretary Antony Blinken to end the unjust imprisonment of Senator de Lima.
𝗥𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝘀𝗵𝗲𝘀
Senator Leila de Lima is currently running in the coming National Elections in prison, as former Senator Antonio Trillanes. They conducted a successful campaign during the 2007 elections from his cell at Fort Bonifacio, where then-President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo imprisoned him.
As she runs in the 2022 elections, Senator de Lima has specified the three main legs for her 2022 platform.
“To go after Duterte and undo the measures and actions taken by his administration that undermined our democratic processes and national sovereignty,” said Senator Leila de Lima, while elaborating her the first central leg of her platform.
The second leg of her platform is strengthening the country’s defenses against the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects. By doing so, she chooses to discard President Duterte’s aggressive strategy and repair the country’s public health, economic support, and disaster relief systems.
Last but not least, she plans to commence the transformation of the country’s political economy.
“We may need to re-define what a living wage is. Not just to ensure that wage-earners make enough to keep themselves and their families barely alive, but enough so that most, if not all, Filipinos, have enough to set aside for emergencies,” said Senator de Lima.
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Written by: Cristine Nicole Pagador
Layout and Design by: Gerald Reyes
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