Minority senators rally behind De Lima for ICC role

Opposition senators have backed the plea of detained Sen. Leila de Lima to personally argue her case against President Duterte’s withdrawal of the country from the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), telling the Supreme Court they would adopt her arguments as their own.

In a motion they filed in the high court, the five other members of the minority bloc—Senators Francis Pangilinan, Franklin Drilon, Bam Aquino, Risa Hontiveros and Antonio Trillanes IV—said they would no longer be represented by their own lawyers. — LEILA B. SALAVERRIA