How Duterte weaponized the justice system against Leila de Lima
We need to talk about how former President Rodrigo orchestrated one of the most blatant cases of political persecution in modern Philippine history—the 7-year detention of former Senator Leila de Lima
For years, De Lima was vilified as a "drug queen," but her complete court acquittals and recent explosive House Quad Committee revelations prove it was a highly calculated demolition job. De Lima’s real "crime" was investigating Duterte’s Davao Death Squad (DDS) and the extrajudicial killings in his bloody drug war.
Here is exactly how the system was rigged to convict her for crimes she didn’t commit:
- Coerced Testimonies and Manufactured Evidence
The Duterte administration didn't need physical evidence like actual narcotics to lock De Lima up; they relied almost entirely on the testimonies of convicted prison inmates and pressured officials. We now know this "evidence" was systematically manufactured:
* The Recantations: Key state witnesses, including former Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) chief Rafael Ragos, admitted they were heavily coerced, threatened, and instructed by Duterte's Department of Justice (DOJ) under Vitaliano Aguirre IIto falsify affidavits against De Lima.
* The "Bato" Connection: Self-confessed drug lord Kerwin Espinosa testified before Congress that he was directly pressured and threatened by Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa to falsely implicate De Lima in the illegal drug trade.
- Duterte's Real Bilibid Connection
Duterte famously released a convoluted "Bilibid Drug Matrix"in August 2016 to tie De Lima to high-profile inmates. In reality, the Duterte administration actively used these exact Bilibid drug lords as political pawns.
Instead of isolating or prosecuting them further, the administration granted massive leverage to convicted drug personalities—such as Herbert Colangco and Peter Co—giving them immunity and state-witness status in exchange for fabricated testimonies targeting De Lima. Furthermore, Duterte went as far as ordering the transfer of at least 10 high-profile Bilibid inmates who testified against her to the Philippine Marines barracks in Taguig, providing them special treatment and protection.
- The Paradox: Releasing Big-Time Personalities
While Duterte claimed to wage a ruthless war on drugs, his administration's Bureau of Corrections faced massive scandals regarding the highly irregular release of high-value convicts.
Under the weaponized implementation of the Good Conduct Time Allowance (GCTA) law, the administration processed the release of thousands of heinous-crime convicts, including big-time Chinese drug lords previously locked up in Bilibid, namely Chan Chit Yue, Kin San Ho, Ching Che, and Wu Hing Sum. This proved that the "drug war" was highly selective—brutal to the poor on the streets, transactional for high-profile convicts who cooperated with the palace, and fatal to political opposition.
Video source: ABS-CBN