De Lima laments SC ruling, hits ‘Dutertism’

Sen. Leila De Lima INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/LYN RILLON

Sen. Leila de Lima on Wednesday vowed to pursue her fight for redemption after the Supreme Court rejected her petition to dismiss the drug charges brought against her by the Duterte administration.

De Lima lamented the ruling, which she said showed the extent to which “Dutertism” had distorted reason and suppressed the truth in the government and legitimized the political persecution of dissenters in the country.

The Supreme Court voted 9-6 on Tuesday to dismiss De Lima’s petition to quash her indictment for drug trafficking, in three cases brought against her by the Department of Justice last year after she, as chair of the Senate committee on justice and human rights, investigated alleged unlawful killings by the police in President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs.

Duterte’s vengeance

“I had hoped that the justices who decided against my petition [could] feel the pain of someone who [was] sent to prison and yet [was] innocent of any crime and [had] merely fallen victim to the strong arm of the state and the President’s deeply rooted vengeance against [me],” De Lima said in a statement released from her detention cell at the Philippine National Police headquarters in Camp Crame, Quezon City.

She said, however, that she was comforted by the thought that six of the 15 justices voted in her favor.

“I honor them with profound thanks and admiration for their courage and fealty to their sworn duty,” De Lima said.

She said her lawyers would file a motion for reconsideration of the ruling.