Makabayan party senatorial candidate Neri Colmenares has called for the immediate release of Senator Leila de Lima on the fifth year anniversary of her incarceration for drug charges.
“As Senator Leila de Lima marks her fifth year of unjust detention, I join the calls to free the senator and drop the invented charges against her. Her case is political persecution at its worst, with the whole state machinery used to vilify and degrade her stature as a senator and human being,” said Colmenares in a statement on Thursday, Feb. 24.
De Lima surrendered herself to the police on Feb. 24, 2017 after being charged with alleged involvement in drug trafficking. She was also accused of accepting drug money to fund her senatorial campaign in May 2016.
She has been detained by the Philippine National Police (PNP) in Camp Crame, Quezon City since then.
Although detained and barred from using any sort of communication devices, she continued her duties as a legislator via her senatorial staff, through whom she forwards handwritten correspondence.
“Senator De Lima's crime was remaining true to her duty. She ensured that the Commission on Human Rights and the Senate fulfilled its mandate of checks and balances to ensure that the government was fulfilling its duty of respecting the rights of every individual,” Colmenares noted.
A staunch critic of the Duterte administration, De Lima has denied all of the allegations hurled against her.
Colmenares further added that her continued detention is a waste of public resources, which instead could have been used to build cases against criminals.
“To quote the words of Justice Antonio Carpio, keeping Senator De Lima detained is the grossest injustice. One day of unjust detention is already too much; what more five years that deprived 14.1 million voters of a legislator that fought for the rights of every person, regardless of status in society? Justice demands that the government release Senator De Lima and all other political prisoners that have fallen prey to the dysfunctional justice system under the Duterte regime,” he said.
The detained De Lima is vying for reelection as senator under the Liberal Party (LP) in the upcoming May 2022 polls.
She filed her certificate of candidacy last Oct. 8 from jail via proxy.