Philippines
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De Lima to Locsin: 'Working justice system ensures no innocent person in jail'
De Lima to Locsin: 'Working justice system ensures no innocent person in jail'
Detained opposition Senator Leila M. de Lima said she disagrees with the assertion of Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Secretary Teodoro “Teddy Boy” Locsin Jr. that her acquittal in one of her three drug cases shows that the Philippines’ justice system “works”.
De Lima, who will be marking her fourth year in unjust detention on February 24, said a working justice system would have not allowed any innocent person to be subjected to political persecution.
"A truly working justice system ensures that no innocent person will be in jail and the subject of a concerted and concentrated persecution of all three branches of government,” she said.
A staunch critic of the administration’s war on drugs, De Lima likewise stressed that a working justice system "does not close its eyes to the inhumanity of thousands of summary killings."
"If the justice system in the country is working, why are there thousands of families who lost their loved ones to summary executions? Probably, these killings are not happening in the corridors of the rich and powerful but in common place, everyday, in the eskinitas (alleys) of the poor," she added.
Last Feb. 17, Judge Liezel Aquiatan of Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court (RTC), Branch 205 granted De Lima's Demurrer to Evidence in the case where her co-accused was her nephew Jose Dera. The granting of a demurrer was tantamount to her acquittal.
The same court, however, denied her Demurrer and Motion for Bail another case. She also has a pending bail motion in her third case before the Muntinlupa RTC Branch 256.
De Lima had called the acquittal as a "moral victory" in the time of the Duterte administration.
Earlier, Locsin commented about De Lima's acquittal, posting on Twitter: "It is actually proof conclusive that the Philippine justice system works if slowly at least exceeding fine. I knew it all along."
He further tweeted: “Will send this to the UN (United Nations) as further reason to respect our justice system before opening the mouth with ignorant comments."