THE MUNTINLUPA Regional Trial Court has just granted bail to former senator Leila M. de Lima.
Judge Gener M. Gito issued an order yesterday afternoon allowing de Lima and her co-accused to post bail in the amount of P300,000 each.
This boots de Lima out of detention after almost seven years of trial.
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Judge Gito deserves accolades for flexing judicial independence and ruling for freedom on a highly politicized case.
This may set the tenor for de Lima’s eventual acquittal, the grant of bail being essentially a finding that the evidence submitted by the prosecution does not, at this juncture, strongly support a finding of guilt.
De Lima was a hale and hearty, combative senator when she was detained in February 2017.
The passage of time is irreversible. Seven productive years are gone. The very department that she used to head has deprived her of the simple pleasures that freedom affords.
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As this is being written, the Philippine National Police is awaiting the release order from the Muntinlupa RTC. De Lima is undergoing medical procedures preparatory to release.
Former Vice President Leni Robredo has joined the chorus of rejoicing over this happy development.
Robredo said that de Lima’s “courage and her faith lent so many of us the resolve to continue fighting the good fight, to speak truth to power, and to keep believing that the Filipino people deserve so much more.”
De Lima was arrested in early 2017 while she was spearheading an investigation into the alleged extrajudicial killings of drug suspects in Davao when Rodrigo Duterte was mayor of the city.
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The drug cases against de Lima have been a source of embarrassment in the international community.
The European Parliament was among the first to condemn illegal killings in the Philippines and call for de Lima’s immediate release after her arrest.
The snail-paced prosecution against her prompted the Supreme Court’s office of the court administrator in June this year to direct the resolution of the last of the three cases “within nine months.”
De Lima had previously been acquitted in the two other cases.
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De Lima has graciously thanked the BBM administration for respecting the independence of the judiciary.
Saying that aloud reveals her thought process. While the judiciary must indeed be acting independently of the other branches of government, de Lima is obviously mindful of certain stark realities – among which is the perception that the strongest branch, the executive, can be an unstoppable force when the people manning it are impelled by malice and hatred.
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Detention during trial does not destroy the constitutional presumption of innocence.
Sen. Grace Poe correctly describes de Lima’s almost seven years of detention as “long and arduous.” Whether we are rich or poor, it is unjust to stay in detention for a long time only because the process is slow. Justice delayed is truly justice denied.
The judiciary is seriously undermanned. Cases are doubling. Criminal complaints that are meant to harass and have negligible chances of succeeding in court should no longer be filed by the justice department./PN
