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NewsTranscript
00:00Now that her freedom has been granted, former Senator Laila de Lima wants to help the victims of the drug war of the Duterte administration.
00:08Let's hear from Sandra Aguinaldo.
00:13Arrest me now! If that's what you really want, then arrest me now!
00:20In 2017, three cases were filed against Senator Laila de Lima
00:25for allegedly colluding with drug lords in the Philippines
00:29in the drug war when she was the Secretary of Justice.
00:33After seven years, all the cases were dismissed.
00:40I feel so at peace and I feel, you know, I can breathe freely now.
00:49De Lima is now free, but she still has a lot of things to do.
00:53One of her studies and her lawyers is on how to answer
00:58former President Rodrigo Duterte, former Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre,
01:03and other cases behind her.
01:06Those who operated on me, because they operated on me,
01:12and they forced the Bilibid witnesses to invent stories
01:21about my involvement in illegal drug trading inside via Bilibid.
01:29The accusations against her are affecting her image.
01:33That's why she's trying to make her presence heard by the public.
01:38Former Senator Ronny Dayan, a former bodyguard of De Lima,
01:44also made it clear that she was in a relationship with him.
01:47De Lima accused Dayan of drug cases that she was also involved in.
01:53All I can say is that there's no connection between me and Ronny Dayan
01:59in the illegal drug trade.
02:02Because they made it look like I was a bagman,
02:05that I was the one who was giving money,
02:09that I was the one who was letting people pass.
02:11That's what their stories were like.
02:13None of that.
02:14But the findings of the court, they really didn't prove the conspiracy.
02:19I think that became their strategy,
02:21so that more people would believe that I was involved in drugs
02:24if they made it look like I was a bad woman.
02:28The U.S. State Department is pleased with De Lima's acquittal
02:32of the so-called politically motivated cases.
02:35At the same time, the Philippines was able to resolve similar cases.
02:40The Amnesty International group challenged the Marcos Administration
02:45to investigate those responsible for the baseless allegations against De Lima.
02:51The Amnesty International and the U.S. State Department
02:55have no direct connection with the Marcos Administration.
02:58Former President Duterte has no direct connection with De Lima's acquittal
03:03and his current statement.
03:05But the former presidential counsel, Salvador Panelo,
03:08called it a grave error.
03:10It's not an injustice for De Lima to be jailed,
03:14but he was punished for accusing De Lima and Duterte
03:18of being behind the extrajudicial killings in Davao City.
03:23This was back when the Commission on Human Rights
03:28appointed De Lima and the former mayor.
03:31Aguirre is now expecting De Lima's acquittal.
03:35He is also happy with what happened
03:37because the former senator has been in jail for a long time.
03:41Despite what happened,
03:43what De Lima wants to do now
03:45is help the victims of the drug war of Duterte
03:49where thousands died.
03:51And if he is called by the International Criminal Court or ICC,
03:56he is ready to give a testimony.
03:59They used a shortcut, instant justice,
04:03which is still murder.
04:05It's a crime. It is wrong.
04:09It's a violation of the right to life,
04:13which is the most basic human right.
04:16Do you want to see former President Duterte in jail?
04:20That's the only way for him to be punished.
04:23To be prosecuted and to be jailed.
04:27De Lima called on the Marcos administration
04:30to reconsider his position
04:32that he cannot help the ICC in its investigation
04:36of the Duterte drug war.
04:38He did not give up the sovereignty of the country,
04:41the relationship with the ICC.
04:44You're not really surrendering in the fundamental sense of the word,
04:51the sovereignty of the Philippines.
04:54You have an obligation as a state party.
04:58Of course, there are shortcomings in our justice system.
05:02The only ones who can be held accountable,
05:04at least in those limited number of cases,
05:06are the low-level perpetrators, the triggermen,
05:10but not the mastermind.
05:12No one will investigate Mr. Duterte
05:16and now-Senator Bato Dela Rosa.
05:20And that is the focus of the ICC.
05:23For now, he has no plans to run for any position
05:27in the 2025 midterm elections.
05:30He is serving as the spokesperson of the Liberal Party.
05:34Sandra Aguinaldo reporting for GMA Integrated News.
06:00Join us on GMA Pinoy TV and www.gmanews.tv.