Detained Philippines Senator De Lima Requests Release

Facts

• As Friday marked the sixth anniversary of former Philippines senator Leila De Lima’s detention for allegedly enabling drug trades in a Filipino prison to fund her senatorial campaign, the politician filed a petition on Thursday requesting her immediate release, citing a lack of evidence.¹
• De Lima — who previously served as justice secretary and the chair of the Human Rights Commission — claims she's being politically persecuted for her strong opposition to former Pres. Rodrigo Duterte and his war on drugs.²
• During Duterte's six-year term that ended in 2022, he received international scrutiny for his war on drugs which reportedly saw 6k suspects killed, sparking an investigation by the International Criminal Court (ICC). He later withdrew the nation from the Hague-based court in 2018.³
• Several key witnesses recently recanted their statements accusing De Lima of drug connections, claiming they were forced to make them. Duterte’s justice secretary Vitaliano Aguirre denied these allegations and claimed that the case was based on credible evidence.²
• This comes as, on Thursday, 18 EU envoys of the European Parliament Sub-Committee on Human Rights visited De Lima as part of her Omnibus Motion.⁴
• On Friday, the lawmakers issued calls for her release and urged the Philippines to rejoin the ICC, saying such actions would boost its prospects of retaining trading incentives under the EU's Generalized Scheme of Preferences.³

Sources: ¹Gma news online, ²Al Jazeera, ³Washington Post and ⁴Inquirer.net.

Narratives

• Narrative A, as provided by Amnesty international uk. Leila De Lima has been a political prisoner for six years, and the travesty she has endured must end immediately. The Marcos administration cannot continue the brutality of his predecessors and should release De Lima. The star witness in one of De Lima’s cases has already retracted his allegations, and the charges must be dropped.
• Narrative B, as provided by Pna. Leila De Lima is a corrupt politician who damaged the Philippines for over a decade and is now being held accountable under the law. She sold out her country repeatedly, from her time as Secretary of the Department of Justice to her tenure as a senator, and plays the victim while being hostile to her own constituents.