Press Release
December 6, 2017

Dispatch from Crame No. 205
Sen. Leila M. de Lima's statement on Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque's comments on her Foreign Policy award

12 / 6 /17

Very serious charges? Yes, the charges that the DOJ and its cohorts, upon Duterte's command, have managed to put together based on perjured or coerced testimonies are ostensibly "very serious" as they are non-bailable.

But these are bogus, invented, fabricated or trumped-up charges. Otherwise put, they are anchored on lies, orchestrated lies. A pure fairy tale of my alleged complicity in the illegal drug trade.

And the very fact that the prosecution is in a confused state of mind, now seeking to "amend" the Information, originally from Illegal Drug Trading to Conspiracy to Commit Drug Trading, is a telling proof of the fakery of the charges. Both the DOJ and OSG cannot figure out, as they cannot agree, on what exactly are they accusing me of!

The patent infirmity of the original Information was plainly and intensely articulated by some of the dissenting Justices in the recent 9-6 decision of the Supreme Court on my Petition. According to them, the defects or deficiencies of said Information are such that render my arrest and detention void from the very beginning.

No amount of lies, or no matter how many self-confessed drug lords and convicted felons or any other so-called witnesses my persecutors may persuade or threated to lie against me, it will not change the fact that I'm innocent.

The world knows that I'm innocent. Hence, as this grossest injustice is being perpetrated in full view of the entire world, to paraphrase Justice Carpio, institutions around the world felt morally compelled to provide any meaningful succor, in solidarity with my causes. That is the very essence of the various recognitions, all priceless, accorded me, the latest being those from the Liberal International (LI) and Foreign Policy (FP) magazine.

As Amnesty International's motto aptly puts it -- "when injustice happens to one person, it matters to us all."

News Latest News Feed