Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 24) – Former Senator Leila de Lima marked her sixth year in detention on Friday, as various groups pressed for her immediate release and the dropping of what they call fabricated charges against her.
“Six years of unjust detention,” De Lima said a day ahead of Saturday’s EDSA People Power Revolution’s 37th year anniversary.
“Six years that my persecutors hoped would be spent in futility, submission and silence,” she also said. “Instead, it has been 6 years of fighting the good fight… perhaps the most important 6 years of my life.”
De Lima was arrested on Feb. 24, 2017 over alleged drug money she used for her senatorial campaign in 2016 when she was still a Justice secretary.
She repeatedly refuted the allegations and said the drug charges against her were fabricated to silence her for investigating former President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs.
“Six years I stood my ground. I am still fighting for my own innocence and for justice for the victims of extrajudicial killings and the families they left behind,” she added.
During the past six years, several witnesses have retracted their testimonies that implicated De Lima in the illegal drug trade.
In April 2022, Kerwin Espinosa, a self-confessed “drug lord,” also withdrew his testimony and said it was just a result of pressure, coercion, intimidation, and serious threats to his life and family made by the police.
Two months later, Marcelo Adorco, said to be Espinosa’s bodyguard and driver, also recanted all his previous allegations against De Lima.
He said a former high-ranking police officer forced him to sign his previous affidavit.
Meanwhile, Rafael Ragos, a former officer-in-charge of the Bureau of Corrections in 2012, also admitted in November 2022 that his testimony against De Lima was coerced upon the instructions of then Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre.
“I strongly believe that my vindication is at hand,” De Lima said. “But even if they continue to try to silence me, I refuse to cower.”
“When they come after me and try to silence me, they are actually coming after those who cannot speak for themselves and defend themselves,” she added. “I cannot, in good conscience, let that happen.”
On Feb. 17, The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), the world’s oldest and largest group of national parliaments, renewed its call for De Lima’s freedom.
The IPU committee said it was “ever more convinced” that the cases of De Lima were related to her vocal opposition to the deadly war on drugs.
It also requested that an IPU trial observer continue to be present to monitor and report on cases against De Lima before the Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court, “including in order to assess if and how existing concerns about the legality and fairness of the proceedings are properly reviewed.”
READ: TIMELINE: De Lima’s five-year struggle in prison
Human rights watchdog Amnesty International, in a statement on Thursday, said De Lima should never have spent a day in prison but instead languished there for six years.
“It is a travesty that Leila de Lima has endured six years in detention after bogus charges were brought against her in cases that have utterly collapsed,” said Rachel Chhoa-Howard, Southeast Asia researcher for Amnesty International.
“As witness after witness withdraws their testimony, the Marcos administration must put an end to her ongoing persecution,” she added.
