Manila: Leila de Lima, a former senator and vocal opponent of former President Rodrigo Duterte's drug war, had asked for bail, but a Philippine court denied her request, the defendant's attorney reported on Wednesday, prolonging her detention.
Sad to report that Senator Leila's bail application was denied by the court, Filibon Tacardon, her attorney, told reporters. The petition related to a drug case in which de Lima was charged with planning to engage in illicit drug trade inside a Philippine jail.
De Lima was detained in 2017, only a few months after she began a senate investigation into Duterte's anti-drug campaign, which resulted in the deaths of thousands of drug users and dealers, many of whom were killed by police or under mysterious circumstances. Since then, she has been detained by the police.
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A Philippine court dismissed a drug case against de Lima, 63, in 2021, and another court cleared her of receiving drug money from prisoners in May.
However, due to a pending charge, 63-year-old Leila de Lima remained behind bars.
Since 2017, De Lima has been held in custody on drug-related charges that, in her opinion, were made up by former President Rodrigo Duterte and his officials in an effort to silence her criticism of his deadly anti-drug campaign. His campaign resulted in the deaths of thousands of suspects, most of whom were minor, and sparked an investigation by the International Criminal Court into possible crimes against humanity.
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When she served as the justice minister under then-President Benigno Aquino from 2010 to 2015, she is accused of accepting cash from prisoners inside the largest prison in the nation in exchange for allowing them to sell drugs.
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But since two of the prosecution's witnesses passed away and one of the three charges against the defendant was dropped, the prosecution's case has been unravelling. The testimony of numerous witnesses has been retracted because they feel pressured into making accusations against de Lima.