Women lawmakers visit Leila, seek her release

Women representatives of liberal and democratic parties in Asia on Thursday paid detained Sen. Leila de Lima a visit at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center in an effort to seek her release from detention.

Council for Asian Liberals and Democrats (CALD) women’s caucus chair Jayanthi Balaguru, along with Emily Lau of Hong Kong and Maysing Huang Yang of Taiwan, arrived at around 3 p.m. on Thursday at the PNP headquarters in Camp Crame.

“We have a lot of respect for her (De Lima) and, of course, we talked to many Filipinos and we think that she has been treated very unjustly and we do not know why she is in detention. She is the people’s representative,” Lau said.

She said the CALD women’s caucus wants to tell President Duterte that he should respect the rule of law and present in court any evidence he might have against De Lima.

“Let her come out and represent her people in the Senate,” she said.

For her part, Balaguru told reporters that a speedy trial is “imperative.”

“Justice delayed is actually justice denied. We hope that she gets a fair and just trial and we hope that she is allowed to come out and serve her constituents, basically the people she is representing, and it should not in any way affect the position that she has been elected into,” Balaguru said of De Lima.

“Until she’s proven guilty, we hope that she is allowed to carry on her public duties,” she said.