‘FACE OF FILIPINO CONSCIENCE’ Justice Secretary Leila de Lima
Until Leila de Lima stopped the flight of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her consort Mike Arroyo right at the point of departure at the Naia on Nov. 15, 2011, President Benigno Aquino III’s much-heralded payback drive for the once untouchable accountables in the Arroyo government sounded really nice but was also really a lot of sound and fury. De Lima set the stage for the wheels of justice to start grinding. She fast-tracked the prosecution of the icons of impunity—notably Gloria Arroyo and husband Mike Arroyo, Benjamin Abalos, Leandro Mendoza, the multimillion-peso generals (some in euros, too), including two AFP chiefs of staff not to mention that Palparan is now on the run. All these only 18 months into the Aquino administration.
Her focused pursuit of justice, says one editor, displays courage and consistency of purpose as she never wavered even when confronted by her opponents particularly in her face-off with the Supreme Court’s Arroyo appointees and her fiercely independent probe and findings/recommendations of the Luneta hostage tragedy, even if their salient points were glossed over by the Palace.
Says another editor: “There is such a thing as a Filipino collective conscience. And now, it has a face—Leila’s.”