Gloria diem

The former Senator Leila de Lima inches closer to freedom after another judge dismissed yet another criminal case against her for reasonable doubt. What remains against her is just one more drug case, and then she will get to taste, after six long years, what we ordinary Filipinos take for granted.

If the last criminal case is likewise dismissed. If the evil conspirators (and the government lackeys they connived with to fabricate evidence against her and to suborn witnesses) stir to action, she may have to spend more time behind bars.

What a punishment she has taken for the rest of us. We don’t realize it, but her time in jail was a direct result of her fight for our freedoms. It wasn’t because she had a personal squabble with President Duterte. It was because the brutal war on drugs that the former president was senselessly waging was an affront to the rule of law and our constitutional freedoms.

Here was a woman who fearlessly spoke up against the bullies in government, nay, the Bully himself, and who literally risked her life and freedom to protect the disadvantaged who didn’t even realize their liberties were being suppressed. She had the courage to open a Senate investigation into the drug war, and paid a steep price. And six years after, here she is still paying a price with nary a thanks from ordinary citizens whose only instant recall of her is her supposed sex tape.

Will the third criminal case result in the same outcome? A star witness will again recant, and a judge will yet again have no other recourse but to recognize the unjustness of case? Or will the bullies interfere?

Amnesty International was correct in calling for the accountability of everyone who had a hand in the filing of these cases. Not just the witnesses who bore false testimony or the loud politicians who sneered and then smeared her name. We should also investigate the political operatives who convinced witnesses to sign spurious statements of “facts” and deep-faked her vids.

What about the fiscals who did the inquest, and “probed” the veracity of the affidavits? The prosecutors that wrote up the charge sheets, and filled in the data in the information? The signatories in the pleadings filed in court, who “averred” that the statements in their court filings were backed by facts?

Many people participated in this grievous injury against her, and they must be called to account. These state agents had a hand in depriving her of her liberty, exercising powers that we, the regular citizens, had vested in them in the hope that those powers would be used wisely to protect us and the rule of law. Fat chance, that.

Kerwin Espinosa, the drug lord, retracted his accusations, explaining he was coerced and intimidated. Who coerced him and intimidated him? What were the threats to his family? Rafael Ramos, a prison official who “admitted” to delivering money from drug lords to the government “protector”, allegedly De Lima, has also retracted his testimony and named the former Justice secretary Vitaliano Aguirre as his coercer (Aguirre has denied this, but meanwhile, is anyone seriously investigating the mysterious turn of events?).

The senator had it right when she proclaimed it a glorious day. I would be ecstatic if I were in her shoes. But she would be more ecstatic if this one last criminal case is dismissed (and meanwhile, if her application for bail, which has been postponed many times, is finally heard and granted).

For us Filipinos, it would be a fabulous day too. That’s because we can somehow maintain our faith, for another day, in the Philippine court system. One less reason for disgruntled citizens to accuse the judiciary of bowing to pressure, or worse.

No pressure, judge.