If they can do that to a senator, how much more to a janitor?

Senator Leila de Lima was a Bar topnotcher, chairwoman of the Human Rights Commission, secretary of Justice, and a senator of the republic. And yet, she has been languishing in detention for the longest time and even after the star witnesses against her have withdrawn and recanted their perjured testimonies. She hasn’t been granted bail even when two of three cases against her had already been dismissed. If they can do this to a senator, how much more to a janitor?

Ninoy Aquino was a senator of the republic too. He was very critical of the administration of FM Sr. In his maiden speech in the Senate, he denounced the president's series of decisions and acts which he called leading to the making of a garrison state. He criticized the "overstaying generals" in the armed forces. He denounced too much spending on infrastructure. He called the Cultural Center a monument to shame. When martial law was proclaimed, he was among those first arrested, along with Senator Jose W. Diokno and many others. He refused to cooperate in his mock trial by the military tribunal. He dismissed all his lawyers and spoke alone before the generals and colonels who tried him for crimes against the security of the state.

Explaining his refusal to submit to the jurisdiction of the tribunal since he was a civilian, Ninoy Aquino called the mock trial an "unconscionable mockery." He was brought to Fort Bonifacio on August 27, 1973. He told them: "Sirs, I know you to be honorable men. But the unalterable fact is that you are subordinates of the President. You may decide to preserve my life but he can choose to send me to death. Some people suggest that I beg for mercy. But this I cannot in conscience do. I would rather die on my feet than live in shame on my bended knees." And so, we know the rest of the story. The rest, they say, is history.

As to Senator De Lima, as early as April 2022, Kerwin Espinosa, the one who started the story of drugs against her, recanted his testimony. Espinosa alleged that he was coerced by the police after his father, Rolando Espinosa, was killed in Leyte. In early May 2022, the acting prison director himself, Rafael Ragos, also recanted his testimony. There is no more evidence against her. She was already acquitted in two cases but there is still one to go. Still, she is denied the right to bail, despite the collapse of the prosecution's case against her. She has been denied her right to speedy trial. If a former senator and a former secretary of Justice can suffer this kind of fate, what is the chance of a lowly janitor falsely accused of a crime he didn’t commit?

Senator De Lima is the daughter of the late Comelec commissioner Vicente de Lima. She was an academic achiever who always topped her class from elementary to Law school. She passed the Bar among the top ten garnering eighth place. She became assistant of Supreme Court Justice Isagani Cruz from 1986 to 1989, Human Rights commissioner from 2008 to 20010, then secretary of Justice from 2010 to 2015. She was elected senator from 2016 to 2022. Sometime in the 1980s, she worked with the law firm of the late senator Raul Roco. In that capacity, she assisted former SMC general counsel Francis Jardeleza. I was then the deputy general counsel for labor litigation. She was a brilliant lawyer to SMC. She has been detained from 2017 to the present. If this predicament could befall a senator, how much more to a lowly janitor?

I was a school janitor when I was 12 year old in a university in Cebu. In 1972, I was also arrested, detained because of my activities as a student leader and a student council president of Cebu's biggest university. I was released because the governor vouched for my integrity and that I wasn’t a communist. I was only a passionate crusader for social justice. As I ponder on my detention days, and I look at the senator now, I would say that if two senators, Leila and Ninoy, could be given such an honor to be jailed for one's principles, then I wasn’t detained in vain

Whether a senator or a janitor, in a free and democratic country we don’t deserve to be jailed for loving our country and serving our people.