De Lima declares bid for party list seat

Former Senator Leila de Lima. INQUIRER.net file photo/Ryan Leagogo

MANILA, Philippines — Former Sen. Leila de Lima is testing her electoral viability in next year’s midterm polls by throwing her hat in a smaller field: party list politics.

On Friday, De Lima posted on Facebook that she is running as the lead nominee of party-list group Mamamayang Liberal (ML), a sectoral affiliate of the opposition Liberal Party.

Former Ifugao Rep. Teddy Baguilat and former Quezon Rep. Erin Tañada will run as the second and third nominees of ML. This will be her second attempt to return to electoral office after her last senatorial term following her reelection in 2016 was disrupted by her detention on drug charges the next year on the watch of former President Rodrigo Duterte.

In the 2022 general elections, De Lima ran again for senator but lost. In June this year, she was cleared of the last of the three drug charges filed against her.

READ: Leila de Lima acquittal sealed as Muntinlupa court denies MR

READ: De Lima hits Duterte’s alleged tagging of political rivals as drug lords

Baguilat is a lawmaker and activist representing the indigenous peoples in his home province. He served as Ifugao’s lone representative from 2010 to 2019.

Tañada is a lawyer who served as deputy speaker during the administration of the late President Benigno Aquino III. In 2022, he served as campaign manager in the presidential campaign of then Vice President Leni Robredo, whose senatorial lineup included De Lima and Baguilat.