De Lima asks for furlough to visit ailing mother in Iriga City

August 10, 2019

Opposition Senator Leila de Lima filed on Friday an urgent motion asking the Muntinlupa City Regional Trial Court branches 205 and 256 to grant her a temporary furlough to visit her 86-year-old ailing mother in Iriga City.

De Lima asked for a temporary furlough on August 15, 2019, or as soon as possible, to visit her mother, Norma Magistrado De Lima, possibly for the last time.

“Accused De Lima appeals to the utmost kind consideration of the Honorable Court, as a daughter who wants to be able to see and, perhaps, hold her mother close for the last time,” De Lima’s urgent motion said.   

In her motion, De Lima said she was informed last Aug. 8  her mother was  again hospitalized at the Villanueva Tanchuling General Hospital in Iriga City on Aug. 4. 

Based on the information she received, she narrated that the physicians have advised her other family members against prescribing or administering more drugs considering her mother’s advanced age.

Since her detention on February 2017, De Lima has only seen her mother twice. The first was on Dec. 23, 2018 when her mother was brought to her place of detention at the Philippine National Police – Custodial Center in Camp Cramey.

The second ws on June 16, 2019 when De Lima was granted a furlough by the courts to attend the thanksgiving dinner for his younger son, Vincent Joshua de Lima Bohol, for passing the bar exam.

According to De Lima, she would shoulder all expenses that may be incurred by the proposed furlough and provide courts with necessary documents from the hospital and the doctors as it becomes available.

De Lima also informed the courts her mother’s physicians deemed the latter’s condition as critical and is said to be expected to further deteriorate. DMS