(FILE) Former senator Leila de Lima.
MANILA, Philippines — Former senator Leila De Lima is now back inside the Philippine National Police (PNP) Custodial Center inside Camp Crame in Quezon City after she was taken hostage last Sunday.
De Lima, in a statement on Friday, said she has returned to her original detention cell “after spending five days of confinement for monitoring and medical tests” at the PNP General Hospital.
“While I’m still experiencing chest pains (on a lesser scale compared to the first four days), I’m fine medically, psychologically, and emotionally,” she said.
De Lima recalled undergoing various tests, which she said, “yielded normal resorts i.e. no signs of heart attack or distress.”
“God is so good! Muli, taos pusong pasasalamat sa pag-aalala at malasakit sa akin at mga panalangin (Again, I want to express my wholehearted gratitude to those who showed concern, remembered me, and prayed for me),” she added.
Last Sunday, October 9, De Lima was taken hostage at knifepoint by detainee Feliciano Sulayao Jr., who was later shot dead.
Sulayao, together with fellow detainees Arnel Cabintoy and Idang Susukan, earlier ganged up and stabbed a police officer, as they attempted to escape the facility.
Cabintoy and Susukan were killed by another police officer who had witnessed the stabbing incident.
Following the hostage-taking, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. offered to transfer the former senator to another detention facility.
READ: Hostaged De Lima unhurt; Marcos to check on her
The President however expressed his belief that using his legal powers as the country’s chief executive to release De Lima from detention would be “interfering.”
De Lima, a staunch critic of the administration of former President Rodrigo Duterte, has been detained at the PNP Custodial Center since February 2017 over drug charges.
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