De Lima slams China's 'pathetic' treatment of ex-Ombudsman Morales

MANILA, Philippines — Absolutely pathetic, Senator Leila de Lima said, in a letter condemning former Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales’ treatment at the Hong Kong Airport, May 21. 

Morales was recently denied entry from Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China, and then detained in a holding area for hours, away from her family. 

“Those tense hours of not knowing their fate, detained for a cause that they do not know, is the closest experience to torture that they could have,” said De Lima in a dispatched letter from Camp Crame, where she has been detained since Feb. 24, 2017. 

The ex-Ombudsman was further instructed by Chinese authorities to board a flight back to the Philippines for “immigration reasons”.

De Lima said that Morales’ treatment at the airport is telling of China, a country “not exactly known for a sterling human rights record, whether for its occupied subjects, its national minorities, or even its own citizens,” she wrote.

The former Supreme Court justice is famed for filing a case against Chinese President Xi Jinping at the International Criminal Court, for “crimes against humanity” committed at the expense of China’s reclamation activities on the West Philippine Sea. 

This is De Lima’s 524th dispatch penned within Crame since her incarceration in February 2017. 

In February 2018, the senator released “Dispatches from Crame I”, an e-book containing her letters and statements alongside statements of support from local and international organizations and individuals. — Report by intern Blanch Marie Ancla