“This is how justice should work—those in power must be held to the same standards as everyone else,” former Senator Leila De Lima said, looking back on her seven-year imprisonment during the Duterte administration.
In a statement on Tuesday, March 11, the former senator looked back on time behind bars, while thousands of Filipinos were left to die without accountability and justice in place. She continued, stating how she was imprisoned on fabricated charges and accused of crimes she did not commit because she spoke against former President Rodrigo Duterte’s anti-drug operations.
“Today, Duterte is being made to answer—not to me, but to the victims, to their families, to a world that refuses to forget. This is not about vengeance. This is about justice finally taking its course,” De Lima emphasized.
The former senator said she faced her case, knowing she was innocent; and stood before the courts, as she had nothing to hide. Now, justice for the victims of the extrajudicial killings during the Duterte administration is finally within their reach.
“Duterte now has to answer for his actions, not in the court of public opinion, but before the rule of law. This is how justice should work—those in power must be held to the same standards as everyone else,” she highlighted.
In 2024, the Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court (RTC) acquitted de Lima in the last drug-related case, citing that the evidence presented by the prosecution was not enough to prove the former’s guilt.
De Lima had been a long-time critic of Duterte’s war on drugs and has worked closely with the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) on the Davao Death Squad (DDS) killings. During a Quad Committee hearing last year, she bared the results of the 2009 CHR investigation on the matter, stating that Duterte’s war on drugs was modelled after the DDS operation and implementation.
“To those who have fought this long and difficult fight—your voices mattered, your courage mattered, and today, the pursuit of justice continues,” she ended her statement.
