Feb. 24 of every year will go down in history as the “Day of Injustice” under the Duterte administration, detained opposition Sen. Leila de Lima said on Sunday as she, her family and supporters marked her second year inside a tightly guarded jail facility at Camp Crame.
‘Unjust detention’
De Lima, who had spoken out against President Rodrig Duterte’s alleged human rights violations in his war on drugs, had been indicted for supposedly protecting drug peddlers inside the state penitentiary when she was still justice secretary under the previous Aquino administration.
State prosecutors brought the charges against her based on the testimonies of convicted drug lords and after Mr. Duterte consistently accused her of involvement in the illegal drug trade.
“[That day] will remind us that, aside from me, there are others out there who were falsely accused and were made to pay for the crimes that they never committed because justice has always been on the hands of the powerful,” De Lima said in a statement.
She claimed her “unjust detention” was also a reminder of the “authoritarian regime in the country under the hands of Mr. Duterte, who uses his power to persecute his political critics.”
The senator said she was able to author and cosponsor 142 bills and 146 resolutions even while in detention.
Third book launched
Of these, 113 proposed measures and 123 resolutions were written right inside her prison cell.
As part of the observance of her second year of incarceration, De Lima launched her third book, entitled “Dispatches from Crame II: Faith, Hope & Love.”