MANILA (UCAN): “The serious injustice committed against Senator Leila De Lima is an injustice committed against the Filipino people. She was given a mandate by the electorate that voted for her, but she was prevented from carrying it out on account of trumped-up charges that have kept her in jail for the past five years,” said Bishop Pablo Virgilio David of Kalookan, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, on April 29.
De Lima, a senator, lawyer and human rights advocate, who was arrested in 2017 on dubious charges as she criticised incumbent the deadly war on drugs of incumbent president, Rodrigo Duterte. She is running for reelection in the upcoming May 9 polls from prison.
Bishop David said it was never too late to free now that the drug lord who testified against her, Kerwin Espinosa, had recanted statements made to prosecutors.
“Any statement made against the senator is false and was the result of pressure, coercion, intimidation and serious threats to my life and family members from the police who instructed me to implicate the senator in the illegal drug trade,” Espinosa said in the affidavit submitted to the Department of Justice on April 28.
Archbishop Socrates Villegas of Lingayen-Dagupan together with Jesuit Father Albert Alejo and Society of Divine Word Father Flavie Villanueva, declared their support for De Lima on April 26 as she appeared in court to face drugs charges supposedly linking her to a drug trafficking scandal inside New Bilibid Prison—Manila’s largest incarceration facility.
Any statement made against the senator is false and was the result of pressure, coercion, intimidation and serious threats to my life and family members from the police who instructed me to implicate the senator in the illegal drug trade
Kerwin Espinosa
De Lima has always denied all charges saying they were all concocted by Duterte in retaliation for her attacks on his deadly war on drugs and spearheading investigations that have now been taken up by the International Criminal Court.
When she was chairperson of the Commission on Human Rights from 2008 to 2010, she investigated an alleged Duterte death squad in Davao, Mindanao, when the president was mayor of the city.
Archbishop Villegas praised her for showing courage despite being incarcerated because of testimonies allegedly made by convicted drug criminals.
Jesuit anthropologist and human rights activist, Father Albert Alejo, who attended the court hearing in Muntinlupa, Manila, said: “De Lima’s case depicts the lack of justice in our society,” Father Alejo told reporters before the hearing.
As we celebrate the 500 years of Christianity in the Philippines. The Chaplaincy to Filipino Migrants organises an on-line talk every Tuesday at 9.00pm. You can join us at:
https://www.Facebook.com/CFM-Gifted-to-give-101039001847033
He said success in the polls would not only be hers, but the nation’s, adding, “I stand witness to her credibility and character.”
Divine Word Father Flavie Villanueva said, “I have been visiting her since she was illegally detained and accused on trumped-up charges. Despite her oppressors wanting to break her spirit remains indefatigable and grounded in faith.”
Officially, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency lists that death toll from the drug war at 6,235 as of February 2022 [Inquirer.net, March 30], however, news organisations and rights groups fear the toll is over 12,000.
