Former Sen. Leila de Lima (left) with Sen. Risa Hontiveros —File photo by Noy Morocoso, INQUIRER.net
MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Risa Hontiveros hopes that former Sen. Leila de Lima will consider running again for senator in the 2025 midterm elections.
Speaking to reporters at a press conference on Friday, Hontiveros said de Lima should consider running in the midterm polls and joining the opposition party.
“Although I know that almost naturally or automatically it will be part of her life’s mission moving forward, as she said, since she was given justice. But she is only one, though the most well-known, victim of the war on drugs and the justification of Duterte’s war on drugs,” Hontiveros said in Filipino.
“And she always reminds us that there should also be justice for all the widows and orphans because of those extra-judicial killings. But yes, I hope that she will also consider running again for the Senate. Let’s just give her a chance to think about it in those days,” she added.
De Lima, a staunch critic of then-President Rodrigo Duterte, was accused of being involved in the illegal drug trade at the New Bilibid Prison and was arrested in 2017.
Last June 24, the Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court acquitted her in the third and last drug-related case filed against her by the Duterte administration.
But apart from de Lima, should former Vice President Leni Robredo also consider running for a Senate seat?
Hontiveros said she “had hoped” that this would be Robredo’s course of action next year.
“But let us wait for her final official announcement regarding her electoral plans in the midterm elections,” she said.
Robredo earlier disclosed that running for senator was no longer included in her options as she would prefer to gun for the mayoral post of Naga, her hometown.
