Once Duterte’s prisoner, Leila de Lima campaigns while he's held at the ICC

Wearing her glasses and trademark printed scarf, former Sen. Leila de Lima waded patiently through university students who mobbed her as she left a campaign stop in the northern Philippines.

The ex-senator and former Philippines justice secretary is on the comeback trail, after having spent nearly seven years as a “prisoner of conscience” jailed under President Rodrigo Duterte and later Ferdinand Marcos Jr. De Lima was incarcerated over drug-related charges she says were trumped up.

De Lima is seeking to return to the national political stage as a congressional candidate in May midterm elections on a platform anchored to human rights and social justice. 

“I feel and I believe that working for the marginalized sector in being a voice for them as the powerless and the neglected … is a challenge, and I find it fulfilling,” de Lima said in an interview, when BenarNews caught up with her on the campaign trail March 10 at the University of Pangasinan in Dagupan City.

“The more I go around, I am convinced I made the right decision,” she said, about running again for political office.

Last year, the courts finally cleared de Lima of charges that she had protected drug traffickers when she served as the justice secretary, but her incarceration affected her political career. In the 2022 elections, she lost her reelection bid to the Senate, during which she campaigned from the confines of jail.

Still, de Lima has remained in the consciousness of Filipinos, and the clamor for her to once again seek public office has grown. She had initially avoided calls from friends and allies to run for public office another time, but her phone kept ringing.

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On the day de Lima met with BenarNews, news was about to break out that police were preparing to arrest her political arch-nemesis, former President Duterte, based on an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant for alleged crimes against humanity tied to his bloody drug war.

For better or worse, de Lima’s name is intrinsically linked with Duterte, whose administration’s anti-drugs campaign left over 6,000 suspected dealers and addicts dead during his term (2016-22).

“The victims, the families of the thousands killed under Mr. Duterte’s war on drugs have been crying out for justice, and they really looked at the ICC as their last hope because they feel, rightly so, that they could not really get speedy justice from the local and domestic authorities,” de Lima said.

As of yet, no criminal case had been filed against the former president in local courts, she told BenarNews.

Rallying behind de Lima

During the years of her incarceration, human rights groups worldwide rallied behind de Lima to ensure that she wouldn’t fade into the background, as the number of dead bodies kept rising in the drug war.

Various human rights groups had called the former justice secretary a “prisoner of conscience,” a description that Duterte criticized in October 2017.

“Do you really believe that the drug-trade allegations against her are not true, even if the claims came from the inmates themselves?” Duterte said at the time. “Aren’t you ashamed of calling yourself a ‘prisoner of conscience’?”

However, rights groups accused the Duterte administration of persecuting de Lima for her probe into the killings through the anti-narcotics crackdown.

De Lima was “a victim of political persecution, targeted and singled out by the Duterte administration for her legitimate work as a human rights defender and duly-elected legislator,” Amnesty International said in April 2022. 

While in jail, de Lima was strictly monitored by authorities, and the only way she got her messages out was through letters smuggled out by close aides.

She had no regular access to a laptop or electronic gadgets. Her room also had no air-conditioning. The former senator was only allowed contact with the outside world on occasion, mainly to participate in some legislative work via mobile phone. 

De Lima’s only companions were stray cats that wandered around the compound. They became her pets who kept her “sanity intact,” she recalled.

Life was a tedious routine, until October of 2022 when she was held hostage during a breakout attempt by three inmates who were accused of belonging to militant groups. They were shot dead but she was rescued. However, the harrowing experience traumatized her for life, de Lima said.

Now, more than two years on, de Lima – a former human rights commissioner and lawyer – is using her time to advocate for causes dear to her. 

She is seeking a seat in the House of Representatives, representing a party that pushes for social change. Part of that is a promise to file a bill establishing the EJK Victim Compensation Fund to help the families of victims of extrajudicial killings in Duterte’s drug war.  

She has also solidified her alliance with Leni Robredo, who was in office as Duterte’s vice president. Robredo, the leading opposition member who led an investigation into Duterte’s drug war, was later frozen out of any cabinet meetings and forced to quit as co-chair of an anti-drug government agency after criticizing the many deaths.

Robredo would later contest the presidency in 2022, but lost to Ferdinand Marcos Jr., whose family had teamed up with the Dutertes. 

Ironically, it was the Marcos administration that facilitated Duterte’s transfer to the ICC.

“His hands were tied. He was in a partnership with the Dutertes,” she said, referring to President Marcos. “But when the unity [alliance with the Dutertes] broke up, then we could see the gradual softening of his administration’s position [on the ICC].”

Politically, the ICC’s custody of Duterte “is an ace” for Marcos, de Lima said, adding “it is the best way of getting rid of Mr. Duterte because he poses a problem” for Marcos’ government.

‘Tell your story’

De Lima is back on the campaign trail after her allies convinced her to run. Those included Edcel Lagman, the late lawmaker and human rights advocate.

“My advice to you is to go around the country,” de Lima recalled Lagman telling her.

“Tell your story directly to the people.”