Former senator Leila de Lima said on Thursday, April 3, that while she is filing a case against former president Rodrigo Duterte, it will have to take a backseat now as far as cases to be filed in the Philippines are concerned since he will not be returning to the country anytime soon.
Duterte remains detained in The Hague in the Netherlands where he is facing charges for crimes against humanity before the International Criminal Court.
“I might join instead the group of victims in The Hague,” she said.
“Although I was not killed, I was definitely threatened, intimidated, harassed, falsely accused, and unjustly imprisoned by Duterte. If asked, I am willing to testify about what was done to me in order for Duterte to silence opposition to the drug war”, de Lima said.
De Lima at a press conference in Bacolod on Wednesday said she will definitely file a case against Duterte and former justice secretary Vitaliano Aguirre for her being detained for almost seven years on fabricated drug trafficking charges.
De Lima, first nominee of the Mamamayang Liberal Partylist who was campaigning in Negros Occidental, said her lawyers are studying the charges to be filed.
“My lawyers are at it already…they are supposed to be really studying what exactly the cases will be filed against Mr. Duterte, former justice secretary Aguirre and several others who had a hand in accessing those witnesses, the Bilibid inmates, and forced them, coerced them, pressured them into falsely testifying against me,” she said.*