Minority Senators Koko Pimentel and Risa Hontiveros have filed a resolution urging the Department of Justice (DOJ) to withdraw the remaining drug charges against former Senator Leila de Lima and release her from detention.
Pimentel and Hontiveros signed and filed Resolution No. 27 "in light of the recent recantations given by key witnesses in her drug cases".
Hontiveros, in a press conference on Tuesday, July 26 disclosed that another senator, a female, from the supermajority bloc also agreed to join in their resolution.
Branding the detention being "unjust and arbitrary," the two lawmakers noted that De Lima, who received accolades for her fight for human rights, still "has maintained her innocence and is fueled by her quest for vindication".
"Without question, her continued detention is one of the grossest injustices ever committed to a sitting Senator," they said.
Pimentel and Hontiveros also cited the recent recantations of primary witnesses against De Lima, which "only further strengthened claim to innocence".
The "unjust detention was nothing more than a carefully orchestrated ploy to silence an outspoken critic and passionate human rights advocate," they added.
The two senators believed it is "incumbent" upon the Senate to call on its co-equal branches of government "to be true to their mandates of ensuring that justice is served without passion or prejudice, and always with fairness".
The DOJ, headed by Sec. Jesus Crispin "Boying" Remulla, "should seriously consider these recantations...thereby redeeming itself to the Filipino people and proving that its institutional integrity remains intact by standing up for truth, justice and the rule of law," they added.