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De Lima thanks courts for letting her see ailing mom via video call
Detained opposition Senator Leila de Lima thanked the court on Friday for allowing her to briefly see her ailing mother, who tested positive for COVID-19, through an online video conference call last February 3.
In her manifestation filed on Friday, De Lima thanked the courts as they “acted justly and humanely, with due regard to humanitarian considerations and the urgency and precariousness of the situation.”
Last Thursday the senator asked a Muntinlupa Court's permission
to see her COVID-positive, 89-year-old mother through online video call.“The video call lasted for less than an hour. I wasn’t really able to talk to mommy because she was asleep during the duration of the call. There were occasional times when she opened her eyes for a few seconds, then pikit ulit (closed her eyes again), the senator said.
But at least I was able to see her, and there was one or two instances that she recognized me,” she added.
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The Judges handling De Lima’s "drug charges", Muntinlupa City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 256 Judge Romeo Buenaventura and Branch 204 Judge Abraham Joseph Alcantara, granted De Lima’s “Extremely Urgent Motion for Online Video Conference Call” on humanitarian grounds and with due regard for the urgency of the situation.
In her separate urgent motions filed last Feb. 3 before Branches 256 and 204, De Lima detailed how her 89-year-old mother, Norma Magistrado de Lima, tested positive for COVID-19 last Jan. 10. Her mother was initially brought to the Villanueva-Tanchuling Maternity and General Hospital in Iriga City, Camarines Sur on Jan. 22.
However, after the pulse rate, oxygen level and other vital signs of De Lima’s mother started to drop on the night of Feb. 1, she was transferred to the NICC Doctors Hospital in Naga City the next day.
De Lima maintained that it was important for her to urgently see her mom after she was informed of the latter’s declining health, detailing that, Mommy Norma “is continuing to experience labored breathing, and is in and out of consciousness.”
Prior to this, De Lima issued a handwritten statement asking people to pray for the healing of her mother.
“My 89-year old Mom, who tested positive for COVID-19 three weeks ago, is now in critical condition in our local hospital in Iriga City. Her cardio-pulmonary systems now failing. I ask for prayers,” De Lima wrote. —LBG, GMA News