Monday, 13 November 2023
Former Senator Leila de Lima has been granted bail and released by the Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court where she is facing her last drug related case. This vindicates her and the good fight she waged against the violent and criminal rule of former President Rodrigo Duterte. De Lima was ousted from the Senate leadership of the Committee on Justice and Human Rights in 2016 and slapped with trumped up charges by the Duterte government after initiating the only credible investigation into the war on drugs. She never wavered from her assertion of innocence and from criticizing the brutal campaign against illegal drugs. De Lima is considered the Philippines’ most prominent human rights defender in incarceration for more than six years.
iDefend congratulates the good Senator on her release and lauds her incessant efforts to seek justice for the victims of the brutal war on drugs. We continue to join her quest for accountability of the perpetrators of one of the most heinous crimes in the country’s history.
As iDefend welcomes this development, we call on the Marcos Jr. government to cooperate with the investigation of the International Criminal Court. It is now time to put the real criminals behind bars. It is time the justice system turns to the truth about the war on drugs, investigate and prosecute the masterminds behind thousands of extrajudicial killings and other human rights violations, starting with former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte and his henchmen.