De Lima thanks court for allowing video call with ailing mom

Sen. Leila de Lima (Photo from her Facebook page)

MANILA, Philippines — Detained Sen. Leila de Lima thanked the Muntinlupa City Regional Trial Court (RTC) for allowing her to briefly see her ailing mother who had tested positive for the new coronavirus through a video call.

The judges handling De Lima’s remaining two drug charges — Muntinlupa RTC Branch 256 Judge Romeo Buenaventura and Branch 204 Judge Abraham Joseph Alcantara — granted on the same day, Feb. 3, the senator’s extremely urgent motion for an online video conference call on humanitarian grounds and with due regard to the urgency of the situation.

In her manifestation filed on Friday, De Lima thanked the judges, saying they “acted justly and humanely, with due regard to humanitarian considerations and the urgency and precariousness of the situation.”

Less than an hour call

The senator on Saturday shared her brief video call with her 89-year-old mother, Norma Magistrado de Lima, who was confined at NICC Doctors Hospital in Naga City, Camarines Sur.

“The video call lasted for less than an hour. I wasn’t really able to talk to mommy because she was asleep during the duration of the call,” De Lima said.

“There were occasional times when she opened her eyes for a few seconds, then pikit ulit. But at least I was able to see her, and there were one or two instances that she recognized me,” she added.

Positive for COVID-19

De Lima said she would have wanted to personally be with her mother to take care of her, but it would not be possible with the current pandemic situation and her pending cases.

She instead asked the court to allow her to hold an online video conference call with her ailing mother who was in critical condition after contracting the virus.

Her mother tested positive for the coronavirus on Jan. 10 and was brought to a hospital in Iriga City on Jan. 22.

But her oxygen level and other vital signs started to drop, prompting them to transfer her to the Naga hospital on Feb. 2.

Since her detention in February 2017, De Lima only has only seen her mother three times. Through an earlier handwritten dispatch from her detention cell in Camp Crame, De Lima asked for prayers for her ailing mother.

De Lima is mounting her reelection campaign from her cell. She is facing two remaining cases of conspiracy to commit drug trading, which has been pending at the Muntinlupa RTC for five years.

She was acquitted in a third similar case in February 2021, after the court granted De Lima’s demurrer on grounds that the evidence presented by the prosecutors was insufficient for a criminal conviction.

READ: De Lima asks for prayers for 89-year-old mom critical with COVID-19