De Lima marks third year of arrest

February 23, 2020

Opposition Senator Leila de Lima is marking her third year of arrest, identifying herself not as victim or survivor or fighter, but as defender.

“Today, I declare myself free. For though I may be physically detained, my mind is freer than it has ever been; my dignity is intact; and my will to fight to protect the freedom and interests of the Filipino people is stronger than ever,” she said in a statement on Sunday. 

“Thus, I am not a victim. I am not merely a survivor. I am not just a fighter. I am a defender,” she added in her Keynote Address at the recent “International Forum on Lawfare: Weaponizing the Law vs Democratic Dissent” last Feb. 21.

Wishing the over a thousand local and foreign legal experts, human rights advocates, democracy defenders and students an “empowering day”, in a message read by her youngest brother Vicente  de Lima II vowed to fight the weaponization of law.

De Lima said she continues to fight using truth, reason, and compassion –  “the three things that my oppressors lack in themselves and fear most in those they oppress.”

Noting that the weaponization of law, especially against political enemies, is not new, she welcomed this “gathering of the brave. Brave enough to share their experiences as victims of lawfare.

“Brave enough to face the reality that the weaponization and bastardization of the law cannot truly take root and overtake justice as its twin pillar without the complicity or, at the very least, the passive acquiescence of the people,” she pointed out. 

De Lima also vowed “up to my very last breath and to the very last words I utter, I will make everything I do count as a counterattack against the weaponization of Law, and a defense of democracy, the Rule of Law and, most of all, the sovereignty and welfare of the Filipino people.”

On Feb. 24, 2017, De Lima presented herself to authorities who were serving an arrest warrant for her alleged links to drug lords in Bilibid. DMS