Sen. Leila de Lima. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)
MANILA, Philippines — Detained Senator Leila de Lima on Saturday reflected on the word “justice” as the year comes to a close.
In a dispatch from Camp Crame, almost two years after being detained, De Lima said she has started to ponder on the meaning of “justice.”
“Moreso ever since Senior Associate Justice Antonio T. Carpio, in his dissent to the decision to dismiss my Petition for Certiorari, described the cases against me as ‘blatantly a pure invention,’ thus, making my continued detention ‘one of the grossest injustices ever perpetrated in recent memory in full view of the Filipino nation and the entire world,’” De Lima said.
She was referring to a Supreme Court decision denying her petition to void her indictment for drug trafficking.
READ: Supreme Court rejects De Lima petition to quash drug charges
“Apparently, the UN (United Nations) Working Group on Arbitrary Detention agreed, going by its Opinion that asked the Philippine Government to, among others, release me immediately,” she added.
READ: UNHRC asks Philippine gov’t to release detained Senator De Lima
However, De Lima said that it would be “next to impossible” if the current administration “ever does the right thing and release” her.
“But it only makes me ponder about the word ‘justice’ and its antonym, ‘injustice,’ even more,” the senator said.
However, De Lima went on and defined the word “justice,” saying it is what “anchors us.”
She added that the “justice” prevents one from “hurtling dangerously and uncontrollably into space.”
“‘At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst,’” she said quoting Aristotle.
“Justice elevates us and gives true meaning to the virtues we aspire to,” she added.
“What is power without justice? Tyranny. What is peace without justice? Repression. What is productivity without justice? Slavery. What is prosperity without social justice? Exploitation. What is exploration without environmental justice? Disaster,” she further said.
De Lima also said she has realized that the word “injustice” is not “the complete absence of justice.”
“It is the abuse, misuse and perversion of justice. In other words, it is the evil witch pretending to be Lady Justice,” she said.
“If the villain is in plain sight, we can fight it. If it is disguised as something we hold dear, we will eventually find ourselves stabbed in the back for it fools people into trusting it, giving it more opportunities to do the greatest harm,” she added.
The opposition senator also reminded that as the year ends, one should be mindful of who to trust.
“So, really, what we should takeaway from 2018 is that we should be more careful about the people we trust,” De Lima said.
“The greatest harm comes from the enemy we did not immediately recognize, the one that perpetrates the gravest acts of betrayal of public trust. It takes many forms, one of them being ‘Injustice,’” she added. /jpv