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4 days ago
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Leila de Lima, one of fiercest critics of the former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody “war on drugs” who was jailed for more than six years on baseless charges, will try to return to politics in 2025.
De Lima was one of the few politicians who criticised Duterte during his time in office, and enraged the former leader when she began investigating killings carried out during his anti-drugs crackdowns. She knew to expect retaliation, she said. “I thought it would just be regular vilification, the slut-shaming, the verbal attacks,” she said. She did not anticipate that she would spend more than six and a half years in prison.
Finally free, and vindicated by the courts in the summer, she hopes to return to national politics next year and will run as the lead party list nominee of Mamamayang Liberal, a new party formed as a wing of the once-ruling Liberal party, in midterm elections in May 2025. The party promises to champion the rights of marginalised groups, including fishers, farmers, women, youth, the poorest communities in cities, and LGBTQ+ people.
De Lima said she remained committed to ensuring justice for victims of the war on drugs. “It’s been more than seven years already, and justice for them has been so elusive,” she said of victims’ families. As many as 30,000 people, mostly men, are estimated to have been killed during the crackdowns.
Duterte, who was succeeded as president by Ferdinand Marcos Jr in 2022, is facing growing scrutiny over his anti-drug campaigns. He is the subject of an investigation by the international criminal court and inquiries by the Philippines congress.
The ICC investigation, into possible crimes against humanity, was “already at its advanced stage”, De Lima said, adding that an arrest warrant could be issued imminently.
“I knew that eventually, truth would prevail, and that is what is happening now,” she said. “Witnesses are coming out, not any more scared, telling the people, telling their testimony, what they knew about Duterte’s war on drugs.”
Duterte is not worried about domestic investigations, she added. “He feels that he could still influence them, pressure them, or even scare them.” He knows he cannot influence the ICC.
De Lima, 65, was elected to the senate in 2016 – the same year Duterte won the presidential vote after promising a deadly crackdown to rid the streets of drugs. He promised to kill so many criminals that funeral parlours would be packed.
When De Lima, who was then chair of the Senate committee on justice and human rights, began an inquiry into the killings, Duterte accused her of being an “immoral woman” who had a “very sordid personal and official life”. He accused her of facilitating the drugs trade and receiving payments from drug lords while she was justice secretary.
He also accused her driver of collecting drug payoffs and to have a sex tape of the two of them. At a rally of his supporters, he said if he were her he would hang himself.
De Lima was removed as chair of the committee investigating the drugs war and arrested in 2017.
“They wanted to make an example out of me – so that the other politicians, other public figures, would be scared,” said De Lima.
In prison she continued her senate work, handwriting notes for her staff who set up a mobile office in a car outside the prison. She kept a strict routine: prayers and bible reading, senate work, feeding stray prison cats (she adopted five upon her release), walking around the perimeter of the compound, reading and journal writing.
De Lima’s siblings never told their 92-year-old mother that she had been imprisoned, and instead said she was studying abroad. “Every time my mom is watching the TV, if it’s already the news time, they would change channels,” she said.
Witnesses that testified against her have since recanted their statements, with some saying they were pressured to falsely implicate her. The last of the three charges against her, which were all drugs-related and condemned by UN experts as politically motivated, was dropped in June.
Whether or not Duterte is prosecuted by the ICC depends on Marcos. In 2022, Marcos ran on a joint ticket with the former leader’s daughter, vice-president Sara Duterte, and always said he would not cooperate with the ICC. But there is speculation he could change his mind, as the two families are now embroiled in a fierce political war.
Over recent months, Sara Duterte has launched scathing attacks on Marcos, threatening to dig up the remains of his dictator father and throw them into the sea, and she claiming she had spoken to a hitman and instructed him to kill Marcos and his wife if she were to be killed.
The violent language – typical of her father’s political brand – is understood as an attempt shore up support among their base before next year’s midterms.
Rodrigo Duterte will run to become mayor of Davao, their family’s stronghold on the southern island of Mindanao.
“They know that their influence is diminishing,” said De Lima. “They are struggling to survive politically and in the power play [with the Marcos camp]”.
There is speculation she will run for president in 2028, though her approval ratings have fallen.
De Lima called Sara Duterte “a dangerous leader” who is becoming increasingly like her father. She is backing one of three petitions calling for her impeachment over issues including allegations related to misuse of public funds and threats against public officials. Whether this progresses will depend on how much support it receives from the House of Representatives.
Marcos has advised against impeachment. But De Lima is hopeful that he will comply with the ICC if it seeks Rodrigo Duterte’s arrest.
Marcos is reluctant to openly commit to doing so now, given the popularity of his rivals, she said. But in time she expects this will change: “I think deep inside of him, that’s what they want. That’s the best way to get rid of Mr Duterte.”
