DESPITE her predicament, a defiant Senator Leila De Lima denounced the recent move by government prosecutors to prohibit all parties from discussing the senator’s cases in public.
“I refuse to be gagged. Gagging me would be a violation of my rights. They cannot continue violating my rights. I shall continue to speak up on issues that matter,” De Lima said in a handwritten letter from her detention cell.
De Lima was thrown behind bars at the Philippine National Police (PNP) Custodial Center in Camp Crame for her alleged violation of several provisions of the Comprehensive Dangerous Act of 2002 for the narcotics trade inside the New Bilibid Prison (NBP). The former justice secretary is accused of receiving money from drug lords who had been conducting drug trafficking at the national penitentiary.
Believing these are dubious charges as a plot to silence critics of Pres. Rodrigo Duterte’s administration, De Lima vowed that not even a gag order can silence her.
“Such reinforces my belief that the things being done to me, especially my detention, are primarily aimed at stifling my criticisms against this murderous and vindictive President. I repeat—I cannot be silenced,” she added.
As soon as she took a stand against the alleged rising cases of extra-judicial killings in the country, De Lima put a target on her back. She knew it—that being jailed for it was the ultimate price she had to pay.
“While I’m psychologically prepared for this, my whole being cries out for truth and justice. My heart also bleeds for all other victims of injustice- those who were falsely accused and now cramped in severely congested jails,” De Lima said in an earlier letter she wrote to her family, De Lima reached out to her loved ones and supporters.
The embattled senator has amassed political enemies since she was assigned as justice secretary in the previous administration. Now that they have managed to put her behind bars, others are resurfacing as if to add another nail in her coffin.
On Monday, March 6, Janet Lim-Napoles, the mastermind behind the multibillion Philippine Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or pork barrel scam, accused De Lima of attempting to extort money from her in exchange for not re-opening the serious illegal detention case she was facing. Napoles maintained that she never detained her second cousin and former right-hand man Benhur Luy, the government’s star witness in the pork scam cases.
Napoles is currently detained at the Correctional Institution for Women in Mandaluyong City while facing multiple plunder and graft cases in connection with her alleged involvement in the pork barrel scam.
They say the truth will set anyone free. Will De Lima’s “truth” afford her the constitutional freedom she deserves or will it bury her with further legal consequences? To help preserve the structure our constitution, let us allow due process to take its course. (AJPress)
