For several hours, Leila de Lima was held hostage by an Islamist militiaman who was trying to escape from the Manila Police Headquarters prison. The politician was unharmed, but she was left in shock. De Lima ended up behind bars in 2017 for drug trafficking but she always rejected her accusations, denouncing that it was an armed cause to incriminate her. The group of ASEAN parliamentarians for human rights: “she should not be in jail, surrounded by criminals and terrorists.”
Manila () – For several hours, a terrorist held hostage the former senator and former Minister of Justice, Leila de Lima. The Philippine politician has been detained for five years in the internal prison of Camp Crame, the headquarters of the Philippine police in Manila. The terrorist allegedly belongs to the Islamist group Dawlah Islamiya and would have participated in an escape attempt in which two of his two companions were shot by guards and a policeman was injured but would be out of danger. The kidnapper entered Leila de Lima’s cell while she was praying her Rosary and took her hostage. The kidnapper was killed by the police. The woman was found in her cell blindfolded and with her feet bound, but she was uninjured.
Speaking to the radio station DZBBthe police chief, General Rodolfo Azurin, said that the terrorist he saw in Leila de Lima was “an ideal cover”: his intention was to “escape” from prison, so the woman was not the original target of the attack .
The 63-year-old former senator is well known at home and abroad for her opposition to former President Duterte’s repressive and illegal initiatives while in public office, even before his presidential victory on May 9, 2016. De Lima was elected to the Senate in the same electoral round that gave Duterte the presidency, and she always remained a thorn in his side. In February 2017, she was investigated by the police for the crime of drug trafficking. Like so many opposition figures, the woman ended up detained at Camp Crame, from where, in addition to enduring an inconclusive judicial process, she continued to challenge Duterte’s most questionable decisions and also completed her mandate on June 30.
Despite the unpleasant incident, Leila de Lima attended this morning the hearing of the case that has her implicated in the Montinlupa court. She said that she was trying to recover both physically and emotionally from the kidnapping yesterday morning.
His lawyer confirmed that his client is in good health and said that the acting president, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, has urged that measures be taken to prevent a repetition of yesterday’s events. The president gave instructions for the dam to be moved to another place if he so wishes.
Although it did not happen to majors, the kidnapping arouses concern. The chairman of the ASEAN Parliamentarians Group for Human Rights, Malaysian MP Charles Santiago, commented on the incident: “Make no mistake: former senator Leila de Lima should not be in prison, surrounded by criminals and terrorists. We reiterate our position: It is clear that the accusations against her were fabricated, as the retractions of three key witnesses have recently shown.De Lima was imprisoned for one reason only: for launching a Senate investigation into the criminal war on drugs launched by former President Rodrigo Duterte.” The arrest of the former senator amounts to “an act of personal revenge by Duterte that lacks all justice”.
