Senator Risa Hontiveros has reiterated her call for the release of former Senator Leila de Lima from detention, insisting that her continued detention for five years now is an “abomination.”

“It is an abomination for her to still be behind bars for five years now. It is especially absurd that she is still in detention when there have been three recantations of witness testimonies; testimonies that were allegedly crucial in the charges against her,” said Hontiveros in a pre-recorded speech during the 51st Session of the UN Human Rights Council Room XXV, United Nations Office at Geneva.

“In fact, one of the witnesses said that he made the allegations against Leila because he was coerced by former Department of Justice (DOJ) Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre; another witness said that the police threatened him and his family if he didn’t implicate Leila in the illegal drug trade during the investigation,” the senator stressed.

Now that these testimonies have been disputed by the very people who gave them, Hontiveros said it is only right and just that the government drop charges against the former lawmaker.

“She should be released from police custody. She should be given justice. She should be free,” the deputy minority leader said.

Hontiveros reiterated De Lima has been deprived of her basic rights and civil liberties, only because she went after former President Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war, provoking the ire of the former leader.

“While government data would show that around 6,000 individuals have been killed in police anti-drug operations from 2016 and 2022, human rights groups have estimated it to be between 27,000 to 30,000,” she explained.

She pointed out that one of the casualties of the Duterte’s brutal war on drugs was 17-year-old Kian delos Santos, who died in 2017, “shot to his death by police officers during a so-called anti-drug operation in Caloocan City.”

“’Please stop. I still have an exam tomorrow’, these were Kian’s final words,” she recalled.

“When I visited the wake of Kian, his family and the families of the witnesses requested for protection. Naturally, my office, with the help of the bishop of Caloocan, extended protective custody to the family and the three witnesses, two of whom were minors, key witnesses to the Senate investigation on Kian’s death,” she said.

For her part, Hontiveros said she is fortunate to have won another six-year mandate as a senator.

“Fortunately, I am still here. I still have six more years to go. I will uphold my duty to be a responsible Oppositionist and a conscientious fiscalizer in the Senate,” she said.

“The midterm elections are happening in 2025 and I fervently hope that we could add more opposition members in the Senate,” she said.

“Recently, I have been often tagged as the ‘lone Opposition’ but I know that I am not alone; that the Opposition is larger than myself; that the Senate is not the only arena in which we could fight for causes dear to us,” added the lawmaker.

“There are movements, organizations, communities such as yourselves that will continue to help provide checks and balances. And I will continue to count on that. I will continue to work with you to ensure that we live in a genuine modern society, one that affords us basic civil liberties that any healthy democracy should sustain,” she emphasized.