Former senator Leila de Lima will be attending a hearing in one of her two remaining drug cases in Muntinlupa today, Oct. 10, after being held hostage by a suspected member of a terrorist group on Oct. 9.
De Lima will appear before the Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court Branch 256 at 1:30 p.m. for the continuation of the presentation of prosecution witness in case 17-167, which was filed by the Department of Justice (DOJ) against De Lima in February 2017 originally as illegal drug trading but was later changed to conspiracy to commit illegal drug trading.
Under the case, De Lima was charged with conspiracy to commit illegal drug trading together with former Bureau of Corrections director Franklin Jesus Bucayu, Wilfredo Elli, Ronnie Dayan, Joenel Sanchez, Jose Adrian Dera and Jaybee Sebastian, who died in July 2020.
De Lima decided to attend the hearing despite experiencing a harrowing ordeal at the Philippine National Police (PNP) Custodial Center in Camp Crame on Oct. 9.
The PNP identified the detainees who tried to escape as Arnel Cabintoy, Feliciano Sulayao Jr. and Idang Susukan.
Sulayao went to De Lima’s custodial cell and held her hostage. Sulayao and Cabintoy were arrested by authorities in June 2019 in Quezon City for being suspected members of the Dawlah Islamiya terrorist group. Susukan was arrested by authorities in Davao City in August 2020 for being a suspected leader of Abu Sayyaf.
In her statement to the police, De Lima said at about 6:40 a.m., she was praying the Holy Rosary when Sulayao entered her detention cell with an icepick or screwdriver, which he held to her chest.
“Mam patay na ang 2 kasamahan ko kaya kailangan mo sumama sa akin kasi papatayin din ako (Mam my two companions are dead so you need to go with me because I will also be killed),” Sulayao told De Lima.
De Lima said Sulayao tied her hands behind her back and dragged her to the gate of the custodial compound.
Sulayao put one hand around her neck while he held the pointed object to her chest. When he saw that the gate of the maximum security facility was closed, he dragged her back to her custodial cell and pushed her.
“Pagdating sa loob tinalian niya na rin ang aking paa at piniringan/blindfolded niya ako (When we reached inside, he tied my feet and blindfolded me),” said De Lima.
According to De Lima, Sulayao demanded a Hummer and C-130, and to be taken to Sulu. He also demanded a cell phone and presence of the media.
The former senator said her hostage taker threatened to kill her.
“Sabi niya mamatay na rin lang ako Ma’am kaya isasama na kita (Since I will eventually be killed, so Ma’am I will take you with me),” De Lima quoted Sulayao as saying.
Sulayao told her, “Alas-7 na ngayon, pag wala pang mangyari ng 7:30 a.m., pasensiya na Ma’am patay na tayong pareho. Papatayin lang din naman ako, so, idadamay na kita (It’s 7 a.m. now, when nothing happens by 7:30 a.m., sorry Ma’am but we will die. Since I will be killed, I will take you with me),”
De Lima said Sulayao “started praying in Islam. And then he I started praying also quietly. Closed my eyes, and uttered mentally, ‘Dear Lord, Bahala na po kayo.’”
She then heard three or four successive gunshots and “then I could feel while still blindfolded and tied that I was being brought out already.”
“If not for the timely intervention of the PNP security forces, I don’t think I would have come out alive since the hostage-taker was already determined to die and take me with him,” De Lima said.
Netizens have demanded that the government release De Lima from detention after her ordeal.