Minority senators move to release De Lima from detention

Members of the Senate's minority bloc filed Wednesday a resolution calling for the immediate release from detention of Senator Leila de Lima.

In a press release issued Thursday, Minority Leader Franklin Drilon, Senators Francis Pangilinan, Antonio Trillanes IV, Bam Aquino, and Risa Hontiveros said De Lima’s continued unjust detention was instigated by her investigation of the Davao Death Squad when she was chairperson of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) and later investigation on the spate of extra-judicial killings (EJKs) in the country as a senator.

Due to such investigations, De Lima has earned the ire of then Davao Mayor and now President Rodrigo Duterte.

“As her colleagues at the Senate, we are pained by the reality that a member of this Chamber is locked up in jail on trumped-up charges when she should be here with us, engaging in productive discussions, legislating laws, and serving her constituents and our country,” they said in Senate Resolution 645.

They said that De Lima’s road to incarceration was tormenting as her intimate relationships were revealed in public, she was publicly shamed by threatening to screen in the House of Representatives her alleged sex videos, and she was branded as an immoral woman.

“Only a tenacious person with an unshakable resolve like Senator De Lima can withstand all these, unbowed, unbent, and unbroken,” they said.

Likewise, the five senators noted the increasing number of organizations and human rights advocates who have launched petitions seeking for her freedom from incarceration.

Notable among the petitions were a March 2017 resolution by the European Parliament in Strasbourg, calling for “the immediate release of Senator De Lima” and the Geneva-based Inter-Parliamentary Union’s call for her freedom in a report prepared by its human rights committee.

In September 2017, the five senators filed Resolution No. 505, asking the Senate leadership to allow De Lima to participate in the sessions and deliberations of important legislative measures, but the Senate has not yet acted on it. 

E-book launching  a year after arrest 

On Friday, February 24, De Lima will mark her first year in detention. And to highlight the day, the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) will formally launch her first electronic book.

The book, “Dispatches from Crame I,” contains a selection of more than 100 of De Lima’s handwritten statements from her detention at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center on various topics including personal ones, EJKs of the war on drugs, governance, and social justice.

“Without access to any electronic gadget and communication device, the written word is my only weapon while in detention,” De Lima said in a press statement.

“In these challenging times where the government aims to silence dissent, my pen and paper help me express my thoughts on important issues and share my feelings about my current situation,” she added.

Since her arrest on Feb. 24, 2017, De Lima has so far issued 246 dispatches about her views and stands on social, economic, and political issues, including her reflections about the political persecution under the the Duterte administration.

In the e-book, some of the notable dispatches included were “Dear loved ones,” “Dear dad,” “I’m not the only one suffering, fighting,” “I cannot be silenced,” “No Regrets,” “Woman-bashing in Congress,” “What destabilization?” and “Why blame the media?” 

De Lima personally designed the artwork on the cover of the book, which shows a bird called “pipit.”  She said the inspiration behind her sketch is the Filipino folk song “Ang Pipit” by National Artist Levi Celerio, which speaks of a man’s cruelty to a defenseless bird.

“Somehow, I can relate with the bird because I have been perennially targeted by Duterte and his minions. But still, no attacks can silence me,” she said.

The book carries foreword by Dr. Sylvia “Guy” E. Claudio, a doctor of medicine who also holds a PhD in Psychology.

Despite being in detention, De Lima continues to fulfill her electoral mandate as a senator. In 2017 alone, she has filed 24 bills and 48 resolutions in the Senate. —LBG, GMA News