Confronted publicly for the first time by two of his fiercest critics, former senators Leila de Lima and Antonio Trillanes IV, former president Rodrigo Duterte gestured as if to hit them in separate occasions on Wednesday at the 11th hearing of the House of Representatives’ quad committee. It was Trillanes who appeared to enrage Duterte...
Tag: Leila de Lima
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Story for our times
Kerwin Espinosa’s testimony at the Oct. 11 hearing of the House of Representatives’ quad committee dredged an 8-year-old case from the swamp of oblivion. The killing by state forces of his father, Mayor Rolando Espinosa of Albuera, Leyte, while incarcerated at the Baybay Sub-Provincial Jail, was a shocking development in President Rodrigo Duterte’s young administration....
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Leila de Lima and her personal quest for justice
The lawyer Leila de Lima is counting her blessings and savoring her recent legal victory that cleared her of her third drug case. But she’s not losing sight of her personal quest for justice against her persecutors. She will sue those who publicly maligned her and haled her to court on fabricated drug trafficking charges...
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PNoy’s ‘right makes might’ principle recalled
Family, friends, and supporters of the late President Noynoy Aquino marked his third death anniversary with a Mass at the Manila Memorial Park in Sucat, Parañaque City, on Monday, June 24. Kiko Aquino Dee, a nephew of Aquino, recalled after the Mass the late leader’s principle of “right makes might,” which he said “was often...
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Six Filipino women show the way
Women who have marked the political landscape with grit and grace and who continue to engage the burning issues of the day for the people’s general benefit are the subjects of a new book, “Six Filipino Women for Justice.” Published by San Anselmo Press and edited by Asunción David Maramba, the book features profiles of...
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Leila de Lima, free on bail, continues to tell her stories
It’s almost as if where there’s lawyer Leila de Lima—former senator, justice secretary, human rights commissioner and, until late last year, the Philippines’ most prominent detainee—one could expect blistering commentary on any of the day’s hot-button issues, such as Charter change or the imminent move of the International Criminal Court against her chief jailor’s scandalous...
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A layman’s look at some legal maxims with religious roots
The recent release on bail of former senator Leila de Lima after more than six years of imprisonment shows the uneven application of laws based on legal maxims that are not facts or proven theories. De Lima was jailed on the presumption of guilt, not innocence, by the powers that be, based mainly on the...
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When the wheels of justice grind
EDITOR’S NOTE: The detained former senator Leila de Lima was granted bail by Judge Gener Gito today, Nov. 13. Gito is the presiding judge of Mandaluyong City Regional Trial Court Branch 206, which will now hear the last of the three drug cases filed against her. The other two have been dismissed. CoverStory is republishing...
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What to Know: Are confidential funds secret funds not subject to audit?
The use of confidential funds (CF) by the Office of Vice President Sara Duterte, concurrently the secretary of education, continues to be in the news and in social media posts. While most of the comments dwell on the P125 million in confidential funds supposedly spent in an 11-day period in December 2022, among the other...
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When the wheels of justice grind
When she is released from prison, whether by virtue of bail, dismissal of her remaining two drug cases, or acquittal, Leila de Lima is clear on what she will do. “I will make every second of my life as a free woman count. I will waste no time,” the former senator said last November in...