De Lima: Scale of justice

I was cleaning the law books in my study room at home, few days ago, and became emotional to find out that some cherished tomes like that of Tanada and Carreon’s Political Law Volume I and Eduardo Caguioa’s Civil Law Book 5 missing. While these works are old, they are written in profound scholarship as to be irreplaceable. To console myself, I just imagined that I brought these books to my downtown law office but failed to take them back home. I vowed to retrieve these literally pieces soon. Then, I got even sadder to hold a priceless replica of the Scales of Justice which my friend Atty. Odilo V. Umbay, a scholar himself, gifted me when I visited his office in the US of America.

Why sadder? While dusting it off, Lady Justice - that woman in blindfold holding a scale and a sword - came to mind. My imagination added the forlorn face of former Senator Leila de Lima. In my thoughts, deep creases etched on her otherwise feisty feature. What a heartbreaking coincidence! I thought of a blindfolded former Secretary of Justice in lady De Lima, in jail, holding a proverbial hallowed scale of justice similar to the one i was cleaning in the comfort of my home. It was, to my realization, the sixth horrible year of her incarceration.

 To recall, De Lima’s prosecutors accused her of “abusing” her high government position to do unimaginable criminal acts related to drugs. This happened during the “war on drugs” waged in the administration of former President Rodrigo Duterte. To prop up the charges, a phalanx of witnesses surfaced. Arrayed among them were convicted high-profile criminals serving prison terms, a person accused of being the biggest source of drug in Eastern Visayas, an official of the Bilibid Prisons and the senator’s bodyguard. The quantity of prosecution witnesses was damning. Indeed, however hard the law is, it is the law. So, with the accusation coming under the label “unbailable,” the lady, even if she was elected senator by the people, had to be sent to jail.

De Lima cried foul. Without losing her lawyer’s instinct, she claimed that the government machinery run by Duterte fabricated evidence against her. She had to be silenced because, according to her, she brought to the attention of the world many extrajudicial killings perpetrated in Davao City, while Duterte was mayor in that southern Philippine metropolis. To her, convicts who are still serving their jail terms, cannot refuse an order of a prison official to sign any affidavit making them witnesses to a crime, her supposed crime. They cannot say no to the bidding of an official whose wards guard them every minute of the day and every day of the week. They are not at liberty to do otherwise. Apart from that, the former senator asked how credible are statements of convicts who are still in prison even assuming they could choose not to become witnesses.

In the entire presidential term of Duterte, De Lima remained in jail. Even her right to attend legislative sessions was severed by the cuffs that kept her within prison bars. The lawyer’s training she had was unavailing because she, unfortunately, was without any way to show to the court that the charges against her were fabrications. The former senator knew that it was humanly impossible to invoke the conscience of hardened criminals to speak of the truth.

But did not the band Blood, Sweat and Tears sing Spinning Wheels with initial lyrics what goes up, must come down? What went up in 2017 as witnesses against De Lima went down in 2022. Four such principal witnesses reportedly recanted their affidavits shortly after the election that marked the end of Duterte’s term. Accordingly, witnesses Kerwin Espinosa, Rafael Ragos, Ronnie Dayan and Marcelo Adorco, declared that they were forced and coerced to sign affidavits condemning De Lima.

Lady Justice must now begin to wield her sword in order to uphold the Rule of Law. If the scale of Justice tilts, as it should, in favor De Lima, she will finally be set free. Kanus-a kaha ni mahitabo?