De Lima marks year in detention with mass, book giveaway

MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Leila De Lima on Saturday marked her first year of detention in Camp Crame with a mass and a book giveaway.

 

The mass was celebrated by Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas, former Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines president. He earlier said De Lima's continued detention "is the biggest symbol of what is wrong with our country."

 

"When we remember you, we remember courage, we remember love of country," the archbishop was quoted as saying during his homily.

 

The celebration was attended by friends and colleagues of De Lima from the Liberal Party and the Senate, including former President Benigno Aquino III, Senators Francis Pangilinan, Antonio "Sonny" Trillanes IV, Franklin Drilon and Bam Aquino as well as Reps. Tom Villarin (Akbayan party-list) and Teddy Baguilat (Ifugao).

 

Former Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, former Commission on Human Rights chair Etta Rosales, former Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman, former peace adviser Ging Deles and former Presidential Management Staff chief Julia Abad also attended the anniversary gathering.

 

During the homily, Villegas said that although mass, also called Eucharist, means thanksgiving, they are not thanking the Lord for the senator being detained for a year and that "the number of extrajudicial killings can now fill the whole of Araneta Coliseum."

 

Instead, he said, he is thankful God is more powerful than the evils that can be committed.

 

"We can still thank the Lord that a greater number of Filipinos are still good. Goodness cannot die in the Philippines," Villegas said.

 

The archbishop said he is looking forward to De Lima’s freedom from her "unjust incarceration." 

 

"We will be able to celebrate another Mass no longer in this place and celebrate the freedom that God has given you," Villegas said.

 

For her part, De Lima was thankful for the "powerful" message of Villegas’s homily.

 

She said "365 days have been both too short and too long. It is both a curse and a blessing. It has both made me weaker and stronger."

 

De Lima's visitors were served lunch and were given a copy of "Dispatches from Crame I." The book, printed with limited copies, is a selection of the senator's handwritten statements issued from detention.

 

De Lima has been detained at the Camp Crame for a year now for drug-related charges filed by the Justice department against her. She has yet to be arraigned on the charges, which she says were unfounded and were motivated by politics. — Rosette Adel