ASA3577932024ENGLISH

Fourth UA: 48/22 Index: ASA 35/7793/2024 Philippines Date: 8 March 2024
URGENT ACTION
LAST CHARGE AGAINST LEILA DE LIMA CONTINUES
Court proceedings on the third and final bogus charge against human rights defender and former Philippine
senator Leila de Lima are resuming in March, or four months after she was allowed to post bail in November
2023 that resulted in her temporary freedom. In granting de Lima’s petition for bail, the court said the
allegations against her were weak. We call on the government to impartially review this last remaining
charge, with a view to dropping this, and to hold accountable those responsible for her nearly seven years of
arbitrary detention and other human rights violations against her.
TAKE ACTION: WRITE AN APPEAL IN YOUR OWN WORDS OR USE THIS MODEL LETTER
Secretary Jesus Crispin C. Remulla

Department of Justice
Padre Faura Street, Ermita, Manila 10020
Republic of the Philippines
[email protected], [email protected]
Dear Secretary Remulla,
I welcomed the good news before the end of 2023 that human rights defender and former Philippine
senator Leila de Lima was finally freed, although temporarily, after she was granted bail in the third and
last fabricated charge against her. I remain concerned, however, as court proceedings for this final case are
resuming in March, and she continues to face the risk of being sent back to prison solely for her human
rights work. I write to urge your office to impartially review the last charge against her, with a view to
dropping it, and put an end to her years of persecution.
As of December 2023, at least 13 witnesses had retracted their testimony against de Lima, with the court
also citing the weakness of the allegations against her as the basis for the granting of her bail petition last
year. These retractions and the latest court decision are veritable proof of concerted efforts to fabricate
evidence against de Lima and persecute her, which resulted in her arbitrary detention for nearly seven years
and other human rights violations against her.
The arbitrary detention of de Lima clearly violated her right to presumption of innocence and other fair trial
guarantees. Beyond this, she has also been the target of vicious attacks and political persecution for her
human rights work. Now that she has finally been freed, while only temporarily, the dropping of this final
bogus case is a necessary next step to correct this grave injustice against her. If the Marcos administration
were indeed serious about restoring respect for human rights in the country, it must finally put an end to
the persecution of all human rights defenders, including de Lima.
I call on your office to:

1. Drop the final fabricated case against de Lima and put an end to her years of persecution;
2. Conduct thorough, independent and impartial investigations into those responsible for her arbitrary
detention and ensure full accountability for the years of human rights violations she has had to
endure; and
3. Work toward creating an environment that enables human rights defenders like Leila to carry out
their important work, without fear of reprisals.
Yours sincerely,
Fourth UA: 48/22 Index: ASA 35/7793/2024 Philippines Date: 8 March 2024
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Human rights defender and former Senator Leila de Lima had been detained at the headquarters of the Philippine
National Police (PNP) since her arrest on 24 February 2017. She was temporarily released from detention on 13
November 2023 after she was granted bail. She was one of the staunchest critics of the human rights violations
under the administration of former President Duterte. In the nearly seven years of her arbitrary detention, Amnesty
International has repeatedly said that the charges against her were fabricated, and that the allegations by witnesses
against her was manufactured.
De Lima faced three fabricated drug-related charges in total, two of which were dismissed by two different courts in
2021 and 2023. In the third and last case, handled also by a different court and for which she was allowed to post
bail in November 2023 for her temporary freedom, she is accused of allegedly tolerating “widespread drug trade”
inside the maximum security compound of the New Bilibid Prison (NBP), a violation of section 5 of the
Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2022 relating to the sale, delivery, distribution and transportation of illegal
drugs that carries the maximum penalty of life imprisonment. Court proceedings on this last charge is expected to
resume in March 2024.
In October and November 2023, eight people retracted their testimony against de Lima, bringing to 13 the total
number of witnesses who recanted their allegations in the last couple of years. The latest was a retired police
officer, who said in December 2023 that his allegations were “pure hearsay and full of lies”. Prior to this, in April
2022, self-proclaimed drug trader Kerwin Espinosa recanted his previous testimony where he claimed that he gave
a total of P8 million (about USD $152,000) in drug payoffs to de Lima when she was Justice Secretary.
Rafael Ragos, a former acting chief of the Bureau of Corrections, also recanted his statements against de Lima in
April 2022. Ragos said he was forced to “manufacture lies” by former Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre and other
senior officials. Ragos previously testified that in 2012, he delivered money from prisoners in the NBP to de Lima’s
residence on two occasions, while she was Secretary of Justice, for her bid to become Senator. Ragos was
previously an accused alongside de Lima, but the charges against him were dropped after he agreed to act as a
witness against her. Aguirre has since denied Ragos’s accusation.
On 13 May 2022, de Lima’s co-accused and former bodyguard Ronnie Dayan likewise recanted his testimony in
2016 that he collected drug money from Espinosa for his then employer de Lima when she was still the Justice
Secretary. A co-respondent in one of the two remaining cases against her, Dayan said former Oriental Mindoro
Representative Rey Umali, who passed away in January 2021, coerced him to testify against de Lima during the
2016 Congressional inquiries into the illegal drug trading in NBP.
De Lima’s arrest in 2017 came after she attempted to investigate abuses committed in the context of the so-called
“war on drugs”, which has resulted in the extrajudicial execution of thousands of suspected drug offenders, in what
amount to crimes against humanity, and other human rights violations. As in the case of de Lima, there has largely
been no justice for the victims of these abuses and their families, nor accountability for the perpetrators.
PREFERRED LANGUAGE TO ADDRESS TARGET: [English, Filipino]

You can also write in your own language.
PLEASE TAKE ACTION AS SOON AS POSSIBLE UNTIL: 26 April 2024

Please check with the Amnesty office in your country if you wish to send appeals after the deadline.
NAME AND PREFFERED PRONOUN: Leila de Lima (she/her)
LINK TO PREVIOUS UA: https://oneamnesty.sharepoint.com/sites/iar/106a2b0c-4016-4a9d-ac53-

f21b7c181491/

ASA3577932024ENGLISH

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

ASA3577932024ENGLISH

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

ASA3577932024ENGLISH

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Fourth UA: 48/22 Index: ASA 35/7793/2024 Philippines Date: 8 March 2024

Secretary Jesus Crispin C. Remulla

Dear Secretary Remulla,

I call on your office to:

PREFERRED LANGUAGE TO ADDRESS TARGET: [English, Filipino]

PLEASE TAKE ACTION AS SOON AS POSSIBLE UNTIL: 26 April 2024

NAME AND PREFFERED PRONOUN: Leila de Lima (she/her)

LINK TO PREVIOUS UA: https://oneamnesty.sharepoint.com/sites/iar/106a2b0c-4016-4a9d-ac53-

You might also like