LEILA DE LIMA 2.0
Atty. Leila with her supporters before leaving RTC Muntinlupa
Interview by Wilfredo Gatbonton Villanueva
Did they just let out Leila de Lima as we know her, or am I interviewing an altogether new person brimming with poetic justice, an undying love of country, whipped up with a muted desire to make things right not only for herself but to the society at large, all these with a generous serving of God almighty’s zeal and guidance, with Jose Rizal genius, and Andres Bonifacio and General Antonio Luna’s old-school bravery?
A novelist would have been awestruck with such a concept, pounding on the keyboard, seeking to write the great Filipino novel, El Filibusterismo on his mind, of a not-so mere woman thrust to our collective consciousness, when we would rather curl up and watch streaming Netflix, updates on the latest breakup and popcorn on the fly, pare-pareho lang naman lahat ng politiko, back to online entertainment, next?
Yes, ladies and gents, behold the upgraded Leila de Lima with scars aforementioned. Does she have a hardened heart, I asked, knowing her answer but wanting a confirmation. “No,” she said, for a heart that kept on beating in the darkness by her lonesome, an electric fan humming away her feelings like a song, hemmed in by a 3-meter tall moss-covered fence topped with razor-sharp wire, with a growing population of street cats–pusakals–seeking human touch like herself, the constant threat of death re-staged by a supposed deranged inmate with a knife to her throat, ring upon ring of security personnel around her, treated as public enemy number one, a whisker away from execution if she only so much blinked, can only be humbled by the Holy Spirit, thus cannot be hardened, but made ready for the unfinished task ahead; a patriot is born by the spite of a man worshipped for his foulness and nothing else. Authentic daw kasi.
You think of how diamonds, pearls of great price, precious gold is formed, by immense pressure in the bowels of the earth that would have crushed ordinary elements to ordinariness. But this 64-year-old martyr/saint/battleax remains an enigma to her enemies but a compassionate pusong mamon to her friends, most of all to Israel, her sweet, handsome son in autism spectrum, to Coco her favorite dog and her cats, remnants of her stay in Gulag for six years, eight months, 21 days, open to visitation 8am to 5pm weekdays except Mondays, and Holy Mass on Sundays under the aegis of Parokya ni Leila. (Father Robert Reyes, Father Albert Alejo, S.J. or Pareng Bert; and Father Flavie Villanueva, S.V.D. are the priests that have formed that informal parish.)
There is no trace of sadness or bitterness in her for her unjust incarceration. Parokya ni Leila has made her spiritual.
I asked her to make a S.W.O.T. analysis of the country.
Strengths
“A strong and vibrant civil society that comprises a movement that remains to be an assurance that democracy is kept afloat.”
“A labor force made up of professional and skilled workers.”
Weaknesses
“Bad governance.”
“Poverty.”
“Gap between rich and poor.”
“Backward educational system.”
“Patronage politics.”
“Wealth concentrated in the hands of a few.”
Opportunities
“Educational system needs quick reforms.”
“An opportunity to appoint a new and competent Secretary of Department of Education preferably from the education sector.” (This is moot and academic with the appointment of Senator Sonny Angara as the new DepEd Secretary after VP Sara Duterte.)
“Create a national long-term plan based on economic activity with decent living wages.”
“Keep up military upgrade; NPA no longer a formidable force, so we can prepare for external threats.”
She believes that “China’s end goal is total control and domination over the West Philippine Sea and full exploitation of the marine resources there.”
Threats
“POGO (Philippine Offshore Gaming Operations) and the concomitant corruption of our law enforcement authorities and public officials is a tool to weaken our social fabric, to make us susceptible to manipulation and undermine our resolve to assert our sovereignty.”
“Billions spent in nonbeneficial public works projects.”
“Corruption at our port of entry through Bureau of Customs.”
If there is a knife pointed at our throats that can lead to instantaneous death, what would it be?
“Our political culture. There is a resurgence of authoritarian government. For example, the plan to field three Dutertes as senatoriables at the same time next year. Is this for self-preservation? Certainly, they will be espousing the same mode of governance. That would be a disaster!” de Lima said.
What are your thoughts about your acquittal from all three cases?
“I had no doubt that someday, charges will be dismissed. I stood by the truth of my innocence. Pero hindi ko inaasahan na ganun katagal. I was arrested on Feb. 24, 2017. Four years later, one case was dismissed, in 2021. In May 2023, the second case was dismissed. Last month (June 24, 2024), I was acquitted of all charges. This is because many judges inhibited themselves, about six or seven of them, so proceedings were delayed.”
“Medyo anticlimactic ang acquittal ko sa third or last trumped-up drug case last June 24. Grabe, ang iyak ko noong November last year when bail was granted. We anticipated that the demurrer to evidence would be resolved seven months later, which is what happened.”
(A demurrer to evidence is a pivotal legal concept in jurisprudence, allowing a defendant to challenge the sufficiency of the plaintiff’s or prosecution’s evidence. – Respicio & Co. Synonyms to demur: objection, protest.)
Are you planning a nationwide tour to explain your acquittal?
“Eric Tanada, Teddy Baguilat join me in campus tours. Siliman University is one of the academic institutions that we have visited. We have pending invites from Baguio, Cebu, Zamboanga. Political education programs are key.”
“We encourage the students to be active in the public sphere. This activity is very fulfilling. We have a woke generation. But because of the ease of communications and gadgets, we caution them to exercise critical thinking in various social media platforms.”
Describe the Leila de Lima brand. How do you want to be remembered?
“That I endured persecution, that I persevered, that I remain unbowed and unbroken.”
What is the role of God in what you went through, if ever?
We couldn’t do it without His enlightenment.
Postscript:
Of the six cats that Leila de Lima brought home with her from Crame, one escaped, never to return. I suppose there is a Leila de Lima even in catdom. One will get away, freedom being the only option in life. – WGV
The Society of Honor by Joe America 
I am tongue tied in awe of Atty Leila even before her illegal detention. Superlatives do not feel enough to describe her. PH is very lucky to have a woman of high character, honesty and integrity.
I am glad that she is finally free and back with her family, friends and supporters. She did not deserve the persecution and loss of freedom that Duterte and his minions put her through. They will get their just deserts soon enough. Duterte is already in plenty of trouble so are Bong Go and Harry Roque.
There are indications that she will continue with public service and her human rights advocacy. She will overcome because she really cares about PH and Filipinos. More power to you, Atty Leila!
*did not deserve the persecution
***I keep this up, Joe might give me the title of Designated Typo Chief.
Remember the days of typewriters and white out liquid? If you get a title it will be “White Out Queen!” 🤣😂🤣 The problem is that I make way more mistakes than you, but I have edit privileges. So I’m ‘da King.
I suddenly remembered Mary Grace and her Aaarghs.
If there’s a me too movement for typos, I am in.
Haha, funny. Well, I think as an editor you can edit comments? I don’t know. I’m open to expanding editorial rights to give a few stalwarts the power of the correction.
I still haven’t tried editing my comments and other’s comments. It is still an untapped “power” so to speak.
Oh, it’s great fun. This morning I put Chempo into moderation and dumped two of his propaganda posts. He tried to sneak past using a fake name which illustrates he is not dealing straight. I don’t know what’s wrong with him. Does he respect our blog? No.
I am really sorry to hear that, I already voiced my disappointment before with regards to Chempo. As far as being an editor, I will try my best to do help.
My first edited comment was what JP noticed above. Served to deserve.
Congrats! Welcome to the club!
Just to add to my comments to LCPL_X below: it might be wrong to portray her as another Cory, but it would be totally right to portray her as a female Mandela.
The martyr symbolism has always seemed iffy to me, part of the brainwashing done by friars to turn fierce natives into docile colonized subjects, BUT the recent populist nonsense of “palaban para lang magmukhang astig” and diskarte without higher ideals is IMO the wrong way.
Of course, communicating these higher ideals to the masa and new middle class who are mostly “praktikal” (expedient) to the point of cynicism is HARD as hell. BUT I am sure that Leila de Lima will stick to her guns, how she gets a jaded people to believe in her I don’t know.
She could take a bit out of Prof. Xiao Chua’s playbook. He explained that human rights are not some fancy pants, Westernized elitist stuff using the Balagtas example.
I am surprised she doesn’t see the justice system as a weakness in her SWOT list, BTW.
Upon reading your comment, I suspect she might make a revision. Sometimes we are too close to the trees to see the jungle.
Reminds me of the below caricature out of my field of work, which matches my experience:
That kind of picture could also apply to Filipino lawyers versus normal citizens. In fact, in any specialized discipline, there is the struggle to make systems user-friendly.
totally agreed. above anything she has to do something about that driver. what she does to the driver will dictate everything else going forward. but get rid of this whole she just fell in love with her driver crap.
the driver should join the drivers union and protest vs jeepney modernisation, make something of himself. he has been gifted 15minutes of nationwide fame and ought to use it to his greatest advantage. he had selfies with who’s who in the senate and powerful smiling politicians, and that should set him up to a road well taken. his best life is still ahead of him. I hope he is not so small minded to think that the past defines all that he will ever be in life.
if he has learned anything from de lima, it would be that there is greater life out there.
For a lot of Filipinos, particularly women, there’s no such thing as casual sex. There must be something more than lust involved for them to take their clothes off. Women who are raised right are supposed to remain virgin until their wedding night. Easy or “damaged “women are not respected.
Maybe Ireneo can explain this further but there is huge cultural difference between Filipinos and Americans when it comes to sex.
There is what you mentioned, which is the old school, which might not be that valid anymore everywhere as the Philippines has changed a lot in the past decades, but the public expectation is still conservative AND there is stuff like this:
And there is even the Sarah Balabagan – Arnold Clavio matter which involves a Muslima on one side and a reporter covering her case on the other:
https://mb.com.ph/2020/08/24/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-sarah-balabagan-arnold-clavio-connection/
The Philippines is somehow schizophrenic in its attitudes to all that, and I find myself who was almost scandalously modern for my generation shaking my head at basketball muses in the provinces dancing almost like bar girls sometimes to tunes like “Jumbo Hotdog, Kaya mo ba to” but this strange attitude which is neither here nor there AND varies across social classes makes it hard to deal with such matters well, a PR consultant would be hard put to help D5.
not only dancing but dressed more like bar girls too, haha. even catholic priests who are supposed to be celibate have problem in the s department.
in the meantime, the philippines has the one of the highest rate of teenage pregnancies in asia. age of consent is now 16yrs, and still 18yrs old girls cannot get contraceptive without parental consent.
There needs to be a term for that. Moral irony, or moral inconsistency, or moral madness. Well, the laws are written by men, in the main, so consider that.
JP et al, re cultural context. Pigafetta himself documented how it was the Cebuana women who led Magellans sailors into the forest for quickies.
That was before Spanish Christianity created the Maria Clara ideal that Rizal wrote about, but there is a historical article “The Afterlives of Maria Clara” by Caroline Hau on academia.edu that documented how different even 19th century reality was from the ideal.
Numerous single mothers, including an ancestor of the Duterte clan, a mestiza from Cebu. Peasant families were often happy when a woman from their clan worked for a foreigner who was in Manila, and in those days, these expats were usually single. Rizal mentions Doña Victorina, the wife of an old Spanish soldier and Doña Consolacion, wife of the Guardia Civil Alferez (2nd Lt) as a former maid and a former washing woman respectively. Even the prayerful mestiza Maria Clara is actually the daughter of a Spanish priest without knowing it. So there.
And before Christianity noble girls, even in Visayas were kept at home as “binukot,” highly prized for their virginity and white skin as they did not go out into the sun. So the idea of virtue was an upper-class ideal, and early 20th century American rule spread that to the middle class.
OK, the 19th century German traveler Fedor Jagor wrote that Bikolanos and Visayans, both male and female, were “highly dissolute,” and the women of Tacloban were “white and clean”. Consider that Tagalogs had a short Muslim period before Spain, and Bikol/Visayas didn’t..
The Abrahamite religions definitely brought a patriarchal overlay to a culture that in fact has gender neutral languages AND tolerated homosexuality. Pigafetta also mentioned some babaylan priestesses who were “men that dressed and acted like women.”
men dressed like women, same as in the time of shakespeare. the role of women were often played by men dressed like women and talked in falsetto. I’m presuming the same applies in medieval europe and in ancient greek plays. senyor pigafetta must have seen how pervasive it was for men to usurp the role of women.
I’ll have to read up on binukot and babaylan (i thought these were women priestess, didn’t know they were trans). binukot reminds me of Chinese lotus feet. thanks, ireneo!
Babaylan were usually women, but sometimes they weren’t. If I recall right, the trans version was always called bayot.
Who knows how many of Magellan’s men ended up in The Crying Game?
LOL. that’s probably why they lost the battle of Mactan!!! lol.
https://time.com/6339253/philippines-leila-de-lima-interview-duterte-justice/
here’s de lima’s time magazine interview which is similar to kuya wil’s. de lima is apparently far from finish and hinted about a day of reckoning for ex president duterte. tabla na sila ngayon, de lima has said.
though, ex president duterte has a trump card, his daughter sara is just one step too close. already sara is reportedly not attending pbbm’s 3rd state of the nation address on 20 july 2024, after granting herself the designated survivor title in case pbbm is made incapacitated, (she wish!).
we dont have a designated survivor law dahil automatic talaga iyan for the vice president to step in in case the president is incapacitated. plus sara has already had acted as president when pbbm is out of the country; 27x sara acted as president all without the designated survivor title.
so, maybe next time pbbm is out of the county and sara plays acting president, the senate president should assume the designated survivor title in case something happen to sara.
Thank you, Kuya Will, for helping to bring this back into public consciousness. I am always very bothered by injustice wherever I see it. And de Lima’s story is the epitome of such propositions.
You may not know it, but some years back I wrote to Amal Alamudin Clooney, the one who brought Arroyo’s case to the UN and secured here release. I asked her to explain her silence and inaction to de Lima’s case. Of course, mine was one of the thousands of unread emails.
For her release, I salute PBBM. It is obvious he has some input, directly or indirectly. And I wonder if was across the bow shot at Duterte. Whatever, the outcome is good.
This small-built fiesty lady can walk tall in public. Leila de Lima walks together with Nelson Mandela, Aung San Suu Kyi and Mahatma Ghandi as a special breed of humans who overcome atrocious political persecution without compromising on their commitment to truth. In my opinion, De-Lima has her place in Philippines History.
chemp, but would you put her up along side VP Kamala Harris? and what’s Amal Alamudin’s email i too would like to write her and ask her whose idea it was to marry Alex Soros, hers or Clooney’s? Wil, did you get a sense that D5 has an axe to grind, is grinding it, and now eyeing DU30 himself with said axe? or is it more like forgive and forget? cuz chempo’s comparing her to Mandela, Aung San Suu Kyi and Ghandi, and if i were D5 i am for sure gonna go scorched earth on the Dutertes. then probably level Davao to dust completely and dump salt on that entire region. but that’s just me.
I think, there ought to be compensation paid for de lima for 6yrs of wrongful imprisonment.
Are they calling it wrongful imprisonment or just time served though, kb?
Time served for what? All her cases were dismissed for insufficient evidence. The only reason why they detained her was that her “drug” cases were non-bailable because THEY made sure that the legal thresholds were exceeded.
Even before DU30 was president, he disliked Atty de Lima because she investigated his alleged Davao human rights violations.
DU30 and his minions had done her a terrible injustice. She is well within her right to sue them. I hope she throws everything including the kitchen sink at THEM.
there is a law, republic act 7309, that compensates victim unjustly imprisoned. and to be compensated all 3 elements must be present as required by the act. I think, de lima meets all three elements hence compensation is in order, if she so pursues it.
below is a similar case as de lima’s, kaso unlike de lima, the person did not met all three cumulative elements and was denied compensation.
https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2024/07/14/2370055/sc-conviction-required-compensation-unjust-imprisonment
I think she is going after Duterte and Aguirre who concocted the fake charges. Through legal processes, not scorched earth. Former Senator Trillanes has filed a case against Duterte and Senator Go for funneling billions to Go’s (unqualified) friends and family businesses. At the same time, Go has distanced himself from Duterte, trying to remain upstanding in the public’s eye. This has pissed the Dutertes off. It’s complicated.
I prefer this method to the ICC stuff, Joe. ICC rhetoric seems like pro colonization, like hey Whiteys come back and save us from ourselves. This is preferable to that. as drama its very easy to understand too like Jesus getting back at those Romans and Sanhedrin. for votes depending on whether D5 and Trillanes can deliver it looks promising. Go and Aguirre seem like low hanging fruits, catch ’em , flip ’em and go after DU30. but this D5 as another VP Leni or Cory is wrong approach, make her vengeance. not another saint.
She is who she is, so I’ll not be telling her to be someone else.
I’m thinking she’s more like Miriam D. Santiago, Joe. but this penchant for Filipinos to always make this about saints is whats wrong. pigeon holing women of power. thats why I asked chempo where he would place VP Harris and D5, I would place them around the same. sure she miscalculated DU30, but she’s no Cory. Now its payback, write that up. Encourage D5 to focus on this, Filipinos will love it. Vengeance. its best served cold, but in a tropical climate food goes bad fast, so don’t wait too long. let her be who she is. don’t make her another nun.
Thanks LCPL_X, indeed if one looks at who is the only oppositional Senator, she isn’t the nun type even if she went to a school run by nuns. On Sen. Risa’s teen photos, one can see something spirited and mischievous in her eyes even..
The fact that there was or is a divorce bill discussion in the Philippines shows how times have changed. We are two decades removed from the Viva Hotbabes era. The picture below is a bonus for LCPL_X. Other guys, please don’t look.
VP Leni already didn’t fit into the times as her image was to “holy” inspite of her adding social welfare concerns to the opposition portfolio. One doesn’t have to be like LCPL_X’s crush Inday Sara, the girl he wants to wrestle with, but in fighting times, bring in fighters like De Lima.
I’m with you on this, Irineo. VP Harris had an affair with Mayor Willie Brown. and Dems don’t know how to spin this. D5 should be like hell yeah i fucked my driver, he’s got a big ______ ! instead Filipinos are excusing said behaviour with Well she fell in love with him. fuck that. she looks weaker that way as one who fell in love with her driver. but if you make it more about the physical. lust. then Filipinos will understand. like she’s the one in charge, she wanted it and she got it. then build on this further and play up her role as vengeance. ps. whose that girl?
and ps I don’t have any agendas here, just to clarify, I’m still anti-D5. but I also want my beloved Inday Sara to have a proper nemesis. hell the more the merrier.
Not that Atty de Lima will entertain a physical fight with Sara. If I have to imagine them going head to head in any aspect (physical, intellectual, etc), I’ll gladly bet my last peso on Atty de Lima.
Maui Taylor, formerly Viva Hotbabes. Allegedly Sen. Tulfo’s mistress now and still looks great in her early 40s.
I guess being saying the driver is “daks” would be too “kanal” for a woman who still has her core constituency in the middle class who are usually the most reserved – the rich are raunchy behind closed door while the poor and the new middle class are open about sexuality – but she doesn’t have to act like the passive martyr, guess those who said that martyrdom was the Spanish friars’ way of brainwashing the natives to be passive were right, good that is fading.
Agreed. maybe not say it the way i said it, but yeah don’t go with the “She fell in love with her driver” excuse. anything but that excuse please, cuz it makes her victime of diskarte like she’s not streetwise enough and if she can fall victim for that, what else can she fall victim to. that how people think. cuz I’m sure people are still saying this driver stuff behind her back, and the quicker she takes ownership of it, the better. eg. I get what I want. like she’s the play girl instead, not the Maria Clara trope. WAP as Cardi B. would call it. pure power.
“If you’re sexy then own it,” Bruno Mars sings? I don’t know. But this kind of stuff happens. In fact, one of the major stockholders of BMW, the heiress of the Quandt family, got tricked by a gigolo years ago. It’s interesting that the man isn’t a flamboyant type, but I guess that made him believable. Maybe Leila de Lima should sue her former driver for falsely witnessing against her, just like Susanne Klatten below went to court against then Swiss con artist Helg Sgarbi. Depends, of course, on a lot of factors if it is wise to do that. Like Joe said, it is up to her. BUT taking steps is a way to not look victimized. As a lawyer, she will know the best way I am sure.
pps. Kristine on the letter B would be more my type, Irineo.
It’s the PH patriarchy and double standard at play during Atty de Lima’s congressional probe that made me livid. They humiliated her for having an affair when most of them including DU30, have extra-marital affairs.
Atty de Lima is a better person than your idol, LCPLX. Her strength can’t be measured by mere horsepower. She is also very smart, assertive and spiritual.
We’ll see, JP. but my money’s on Inday Sara.
inday sara is apparently non event. gumagala e, at pawang nanunuod ng netflix. not doing her job, i.e, not attending sona albeit, non event sara.
Huma Abedin, Hillary Clinton’s ex-aide is the one who married Alex Soros not Amal Clooney. She is still very much married to George and doing her human rights lawyering. She just recently sprung out Assange from his espionage case via plea deal.
ooooops, sorry, JP. i reread it, and it should’ve been marry off:
“and what’s Amal Alamudin’s email i too would like to write her and ask her whose idea it was to marry off Alex Soros, hers or Clooney’s?”
I’m sure it was Hillary’s idea, but Clooneys got some clout too apparently. match making is a high stakes game, I feel sorry for Weiner, dude just couldn’t help himself.
in less than two weeks time, pbbm will be presenting his state of the nation address, sona. leni robredo, jejomar binay as well as noli de castro are not attending. is leila de lima invited to attend? expected to attend? there has been inuendo pbbm summat did not object to de lima’s release therefore given the all clear. so maybe in the spirit of one good turn deserves another, if leila de lima be among sona attendees, she has to give statement soonest and forestall any wayward trajectories.
I think she is a bit of a lightning rod and would upstage the President, so I doubt she will be there.
ahem, pbbm could do with a bit of lightning rod! he allegedly needs prodding. anything seems to upstage him these days and he is fast becoming a bore. looks like the man cannot stand a competition! seems lost when confronted with one too. his fault really for not having a spox who can navigate media complexities. his presidential communication group if he really has any does not seem to function, maybe they are just props – ghosts! there to pad up his budget.
his allies at the house of rep have invited both ex pres duterte and de lima for ejks tete a tete. I think, hse sgt at arms ought to bound duterte and haul him in trussed like a chicken! he is hostile witness and does not have to talk or give evidence, but he can listen to all atrocities done during his time. victims after victims pointing the finger at him.
Daily soap opera. Even ABS-CBN drama department can’t keep up.
Can you imagine Shakespeare living in PH at this day and age? Materials galore. His plays will multiply like rabbits.
Hahaha, yes, and so many villains to choose from!
villains usually got bullet between the eyes! else they change their ways and become good people in the end.
eagerly awaited is the one big villain and the grandest daddy of them all – is playing mute! vs the might of ICC.
grandest daddy of them all villains is probly playing for time, waiting for law similar to that of united states to be passed here, that former presidents are to be immune from any accusations and imprisonments of any kind. and are to be granted lifelong immunity from prosecution.
Shakespeare would be dead after his 2nd or 3rd thinly disguised characters.
There is a book that analyzes Shakespeare’s plays and says that he was actually referring to many ills during the time of the very petty and dominant King Henry VIII, moving the present into the past. Many Filipino historians actually mean the present when they talk about the past, and many movies or series about Philippine history might be references or warnings to the present. Like the coming GMA series (or movie) Pulang Araw (Red Days) might not just be literally about the Japanese occupation.
Shakespeare did praise Queen Elizabeth though as someone who would bring England glory. LCPL_X IMO is mistaking a potential Bloody Mary for someone like her sister Elizabeth BTW.
I read some of those analysis. He was writing about stuff just a few years removed from those scandalous things happening. That is one of the proofs that is used to situate him.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13631849/Donald-Trump-shots-fired-Pennsylvania.html
its looking like just some kid as lone gunman. looking at the site the secret service screwed up big time, specifically countersnipers. as well as the huddling over the president portion of their job, I figured the secret service would have that part mastered at least. it was a mess. the whole notion of should we unholster or holster our pistol really bothered me I thought one short haired female agent was gonna shoot herself trying to reholster her weapon. who holsters and who doesnt should already have been gamed out. everyone knowing their roles. it was such a mess on the secret service part. but I was really surprise with the crowd, usually you’d get a stampede situation, like at concerts.
As someone who watched Clint Eastwood’s Secret Service movie several times it was a bursting of a bubble
LOL. that was a good movie.