De Lima releases book as she marks second year in detention

February 23, 2019

Marking her second year in detention Sunday, Senator Leila de Lima is releasing her second book of dispatches which offers a collection of her official positions and policy statements on pressing national issues affecting the country.

Her latest book is entitled "Dispatches from Crame II: Faith Hope & Love," a statement from her office said Saturday.

The Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court ordered the arrest of Senator Leila de Lima for being allegedly involved in the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) illegal drug trade on February 23, 2017. The Supreme Court upheld de Lima's arrest on June 6, 2018.

Presiding Judge Juanita Guerrero of Muntinlupa RTC Branch 204 issued the arrest warrant. 

"Very soon after my arrest, I started writing. Thoughts, reactions, personal reflections, calls to action to my fellow Filipinos, rallying cries for my fellow defenders of human rights and democracy and, hopefully, humble beacons of hope and inspiration for those (who are) suffering oppression or are otherwise in need of it--writings that eventually became known as 'Dispatches from Crame,'" she wrote in the preface.

"I am blessed because I am only a prisoner in the sense of being a prisoner of conscience who is being subjected to unjust physical restrictions. Yet, in every other sense of the word, I am freer than I have ever been. [T]he key to my freedom lies not in the hands of my captors. It lies in the pen I hold in my hands," she added.

The 2nd book of dispatches covers human rights and the struggles of human rights defenders in the country to accountability, people's right to suffrage and choosing worthy leaders, press freedom, and how is it to be a political prisoner under the Duterte regime.

Among the dispatches included in the book are "Appeal to first-time voters," "On the filing of a quo warranto case against the Chief Justice," "Naked tyranny, rape of justice," "Oposisyon Koalisyon and the conspiracy of hope," "To the President's defenders and enforcers," "Most Distinguished Human Rights Defender," and "Denial of a mother's plea to be with her son in his graduation," among others.

It is the second time for De Lima to release a compilation of her selected dispatches and the third time for her to publish a book while in detention.

Her 1st book "Dispatches from Crame I" also contains a selection of several handwritten statements from her detention, while the next after it entitled "Fight for Freedom and Other Writings" contains a collection of writings, speeches, letters and notes about de Lima and her quest for freedom.

It also includes a long list of the legislative measures she filed in the Senate under the 17th Congress (142 bills and 146 resolutions), 236 of which were drafted while in detention - or 113 bills and 123 resolutions. DMS