Leila de Lima —INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
Supporters of former Sen. Leila de Lima held a Mass at the Edsa Shrine on Friday as they renewed calls for the release of the opposition figure who, should her pending bail petition remain unresolved or be denied, would mark her sixth year in detention on Feb. 24.
A leading critic of former President Rodrigo Duterte’s brutal war on drugs, De Lima was arrested on Feb. 24, 2017, on charges of three counts of drug trafficking. Various groups in the Philippines and abroad, including several US legislators, have since denounced her detention under Duterte’s rule as political harassment.
Her supporters called on President Marcos to have her released “in the interest of justice and fostering unity that will strengthen our bond as an institution.”
‘Power and money’
In a collective statement signed at the close of the Mass, they recalled that Mr. Marcos had “campaigned on the platform of unity and won over a majority of people who believed in [his] message.”
Fr. Benny Tuazon, parish priest of San Antonio de Padua Church in Manila, presided over the service, with the homily delivered by Fr. Robert Reyes who likened De Lima’s imprisonment to the struggles facing activist-priests like himself as they deal with Red-tagging by state forces.
“We are detained as well. You (De Lima) may be in a small detention center, but we are in a larger one. They watch over you, they watch over us priests, too. They tag you, color you,” Reyes said.
“Will you, my fellow priests, be afraid? Will the spirit you receive when you were baptized until you become priests be crushed by them? Will you allow it to be taken away from us?” he added.
Without naming names, Reyes then directed his sermon at “they [who] keep on flying abroad, meeting in hotels with delicious food, [with] all expenses paid from the taxes taken from a hungry population.”
Brother’s plea
“Within the luxurious and expensive institutions, from the Senate, the Congress to Malacañang, what are they busy with? The Maharlika Wealth Fund and Charter change. The world of funds and power,” he added.
The priest appealed to them to “be in love with humanity, and not [with] power and money.”De Lima’s brother, Vicente “Vicboy” de Lima, read out a letter she wrote for her supporters.
“The fight continues because this is not about Leila de Lima. It is about the fight of Filipinos to protect our democracy and civil liberties, not just for today but for the next generations,” she was quoted as saying.
Vicboy also had a few words of his own to say: “There’s really no case. Why prolong the agony? Why prolong the injustice against my sister?”
Next move
De Lima’s lawyers earlier said that on Feb. 24 they would either file a supplemental motion to her Jan. 27 bail petition or move to have the remaining two cases against her dismissed.
They said their move would depend on how soon the court will “acknowledge” the Feb. 10 testimony of former Bureau of Corrections officer in charge Rafael Ragos, one of four prosecution witnesses who had retracted their allegations against the former senator.
Of the three charges against De Lima, all in connection with alleged drug trafficking at New Bilibid Prison, one was dismissed in 2021 by Branch 205 of the Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court (RTC) after it granted her demurrer on the grounds of insufficient evidence.
The other two cases are being heard by Branch 204 of the Muntinlupa RTC.