The ambassadors and spokespersons of Germany, the Netherlands, the European Union, Canada, Australia and the United States expressed their delight as the news came in of the dismissal of the last of the spurious and malicious cases against Leila de Lima that were filed during and in service of the misbegotten aims of the Duterte administration.
They lauded the victory of justice, and the rule of law, as well as her personal strength during the nearly seven years of incarceration under cruel conditions.
International newspapers carried the news; Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and many local groups applauded her vindication.
I had never personally met Leila de Lima until she came to Dumaguete in April this year, and a group of us had dinner with her.
I asked permission to give her a hug, and told her that although we had never met, she very often inhabited my thoughts and emotions during the years of her imprisonment, and that I had felt distress, and even rage at what was being done to her.
My strong reactions to her case and situation came from the awareness of the machinations of a servile justice system, but primarily, it had to do with the pattern of misogyny displayed with gusto by the highest official of the land.
“I should have been the first to rape her!”, “Shoot them in the vagina!” and many such instances of vile speech that greatly entertained his minions.
Other women drew his ire, and were ill-treated like Vice-President Leni Robredo, Chief Justice Sereno ousted by unconstitutional means, Maria Ressa who went on to win the Nobel Prize, women of higher moral and intellectual qualities than the man who sought to harm them.
The worst thing about unworthy public figures like Duterte, and unfortunately such individuals will always exist, lies in the fact that they appeal to many people who apparently have no tools of judgment or ethical standards.
In fact, the problem really lies with the many, all those who choose to applaud, and be entertained by boorish and low behavior, those men, and even women, who continue to go along because it resonates with their own ingrained and unquestioned patriarchal beliefs.
And then there are the many political enablers who calculate their own gain in allying with a “strongman.”
What does this say about our fellow citizens who award bad behavior with high approval ratings? What does it say about what kind of country we are?
And therefore, we are grateful for the example of a woman like Leila de Lima who sacrificed nearly seven years of her life for her principles, and who emerged with her human dignity intact.
Many salute her, like the German Ambassador to the Philippines, who said that he was “grateful that she can continue her vital work in advocating for truth and justice.”
Filipinos should be grateful, too, that although faced with too many dishearteningly unworthy political leaders, there are de Limas, and others like her, who offer high ethical and intellectual standards to put at the service of this country.
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Author’s email: [email protected]
