‘It’s an honor to be jailed’

MANILA, Philippines - Sen. Leila de Lima yesterday maintained her innocence and declared it an honor to be jailed, saying it was for speaking out against extrajudicial killings and other alleged human rights violations committed by the Duterte administration.

“If they think they can silence me, if they think I’ll no longer fight for my cause, especially for the truth, for justice, the daily extrajudicial killings and other oppressive acts of the Duterte regime, it’s an honor that I be jailed for what I’m fighting for,” De Lima told reporters before leaving her Senate office to join the police convoy waiting outside the Senate building to bring her to detention at Camp Crame in Quezon City.

The 57-year-old senator reiterated her innocence of the illegal drug charges filed against her by the Department of Justice (DOJ) before the Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court last week.

DOJ prosecutors have linked De Lima to the illegal drug trade at the national penitentiary when she was justice secretary.

“There’s no truth, they’re all lies, the allegations against me, that I allegedly received drug money, allegedly coddled or protected drug suspects – these are all lies and the truth will come out at the right time,” she said.

She believes that with the love of God, she would survive her ordeal and that truth and justice will prevail in the end.

De Lima rushed back to her office and spent the night there on Thursday after receiving reports on Thursday night that a team from the police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) would arrest her at her residence in Parañaque City.

She was only at her residence for less than an hour waiting for her son before she rushed back to the Senate. She did not want to be arrested in her house.

There was supposed to be an agreement between Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III and Interior Secretary Ismael Sueno that De Lima be allowed to go home to be with her family overnight before returning to her office yesterday morning and surrendering to the police.

She lamented she was not able to see her family, particularly her two sons, even as she appealed to the CIDG to move the arrest for a few more hours because she did not feel safe being arrested at night.

“It’s dangerous at night,” she said on Thursday. “I’m not going to hide or evade arrest. Just a little respect is all I’m asking for.”

Her appeal was heeded but the arresting officers stayed at the Senate garage five floors below and waited overnight for her.

The senator was able to sleep for a few hours in her office and woke up at around 5 a.m. and had a light breakfast of coffee and pan de sal.

She later received visitors, including Fr. Robert Reyes, Dinagat Island Rep. Arlene Bag-ao, former social welfare secretary Corazon Soliman and Sen. Francis Pangilinan.

De Lima also spoke over the phone with former president Benigno Aquino III who gave her words of encouragement.

At around 8 a.m., she emerged from her office surrounded by Senate security personnel and her staff as reporters and camera crews rushed to get a few words from her.

As the senator was being processed at the CIDG headquarters in Camp Crame, her video message was posted on her Facebook page that was apparently recorded on Thursday night.

De Lima described her arrest as “an appalling sign of the return of a power-hungry, morally bankrupt and abusive government.”

She pointed to President Duterte as the mastermind of her persecution based on “manufactured stories” from drug convicts at the New Bilibid Prison. She called him and his officials “liars” and “hypocrites.” 

“There must be so much Fentanyl in Mr. Duterte’s brain, for him to have the gall to boast of the testimonies of their witnesses who are convicted drug lords and whose statements contradict each other,” De Lima said.

“From the very beginning, I knew that this regime would not seek true justice. The filing of criminal cases against me is only the fulfillment of Mr. Duterte’s fixation for revenge against me,” she said.

She was referring to her investigation of the Davao death squad when she was chair of the Commission on Human Rights in 2009.

In a phone interview with ANC from her detention cell at Camp Crame, De Lima said while she has been psychologically preparing herself for the arrest, her being in jail “all feels surreal.”

She said it also pained her as a mother, feeling “the hurt of my family. They know that I’m innocent.”

De Lima’s lawyers are planning to question before the Supreme Court (SC) alleged grave abuse of authority by Judge Juanita Guerrero of the Muntinlupa regional trial court (RTC) for issuing the arrest warrant.

Alex Padilla, spokesman for De Lima’s legal team, said they would try to come up with a final decision to file their petition before the SC.

De Lima earlier this week filed motions to quash before the three court branches where her three separate drug cases were raffled off, citing lack of jurisdiction.

The motions were supposed be heard yesterday, with the prosecution asking that the hearings be moved till next month, but Judge Guerrero of RTC branch 204 on Thursday ordered De Lima’s arrest.

“Let it be said that she (Guerrero) stated that her (order) was purely on the criminal information filed by the (Department of Justice). Her motion to quash was not considered at all,” Padilla said.

He also said De Lima will also try to insist again that the Office of Ombudsman and the Sandiganbayan – not the Muntinlupa RTC – have jurisdiction over her cases.

“We were asking that these charges be dismissed because there’s no evidence, no drugs, there was no order to protect drug lords. So the complaint was fatal and defective,” he said.

The senator, he said, is also allowed to file a motion to have her moved to a suitable detention place if her cell in Camp Crame is not to her liking.

Padilla also said De Lima will not ask that she be placed under house or hospital arrest.

“She’s not the type to ask for special favors or privileges. She’ll stand up and answer these allegations and charges,” he said.

De Lima in a phone interview from Camp Crame with ANC said it was unfortunate the Court of Appeals denied her petitions to stop the DOJ from filing the charges before the regular courts.

“We have a very prejudicial issue of jurisdiction,” she said.