HER NAME Leila means “nocturnal beauty” in Arabic, but her romantic parents may not have reckoned that apart from a good-looking daughter, they would also be raising a strong-willed, firm, courageous and plain spoken woman. After putting the fear of God in criminals of all stripes in the Department of Justice, Leila de Lima is now gunning for a Senate seat where she will doubtless put the same fear of God in all who would abuse the blessings of democracy.
Using a pun on her surname, De Lima (which literally means “of five”) holds up the five fingers of a hand in all her campaign materials, a meme not just to firm up the public’s memory of her name, but also as a symbol of the five hallmarks of her electoral platform.
Foremost of these, she told the “Bulong Pulungan sa Sofitel” media forum earlier this week, was “upholding justice and the rule of law,” including the protection and promotion of human rights. She would also like, she said, to pursue the reform of electoral laws, which the public has lately realized can be so easily abused and exploited by “clever” candidates and political parties out to subvert the true intent of the law.
Having served as both chair of the Commission on Human Rights and then as justice secretary, De Lima admits to one “regret” in her career: not seeing the completion of the legal processes governing the Maguindanao massacre during her term at the Department of Justice.
But she is optimistic, she says, that the trial of the accused in the massacre, perhaps the biggest election-related crime in Philippine history, would be finished and resolved before the term of P-Noy comes to an end.
“I am aware of the impatience and frustration of the public about the slow pace of justice” not just in the case of the Maguindanao massacre, but about the entire criminal justice system, De Lima admits. But she explains that the sheer number of witnesses and the amount of evidence gathered in the course of the Maguindanao massacre trial need to be dealt with carefully and systematically, with a “very careful” judge at the helm.
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BUT even in the midst of a heated campaign, with many voters expressing support for anyone vowing “instant action” against wrongdoers, the lawyer in De Lima counsels care and judiciousness.
Asked about Davao Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, who is banking on his record in going after killers and other criminals in his city to catapult himself into national politics, De Lima cautions that “violating people’s human rights is not the solution, you cannot impose the law by violating the law.”
During her stint at the CHR, says De Lima, she was sufficiently motivated to begin an investigation into the human rights situation in Davao City. Specifically, she sent a team to look into reports of the activities of the so-called “DDS” or Davao Death Squads” which gained prominence during Mayor Duterte’s earlier terms.
But while the teams found many witnesses, including the families and neighbors of shooting victims, “none of them were willing to testify,” for understandable reasons. Even the NBI got involved, finding that “mostly petty criminals, including some minors” had been summarily executed by the DDS. De Lima admitted, though, that they managed to find a self-confessed “hit man” who was willing to talk on what he knows, and that he is currently under the Witness Protection Program.
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BEING the daughter of former Commission on Elections commissioner Vicente de Lima, Leila chose not just to join the legal profession (graduating from San Beda College of Law and finishing eighth in the 1986 Bar Exams); she also chose to follow in his footsteps. After a stint as junior partner in the Roco, Bunag and Kapunan law firm of the late senator Raul Roco (where Lorna Kapunan, now a senatorial aspirant, too, was a senior partner and managing partner), De Lima decided to specialize in election law.
Among her more prominent clients were Sen. Koko Pimentel (in his victorious case against former senator (and now also a senatorial candidate) Migz Zubiri, Sen. Manny Villar, Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, and Isabela Gov. Grace Padaca.
This is why amending our election laws is one of her priorities should she successfully win her senatorial bid. She thus enjoys great creditability when she says, in relation to the election cases faced by candidate Sen. Grace Poe, that it’s an “uphill battle” for her. About the only ground that the Supreme Court, the ultimate arbiter, can use to reverse a possible adverse ruling of the Comelec on Poe’s citizenship and residency cases would be “grave abuse of discretion,” says De Lima. But the Comelec, she notes, is the final authority when it comes to elections, and it is highly doubtful that the Supreme Court would issue an adverse ruling against the poll body.
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LITTLE known is the fact that the tough-talking former justice secretary is also a mother of two boys: Israel and Vincent, and a grandmother to Vincent’s two children.
It strains the imagination to envision De Lima as a doting grandma, but there seems to be a softer side to the tough exterior that the “crime buster” presents to the world.
It’s been “a very exhausting two-three months,” she admits of her experience so far on the campaign trail. When complimented on her slimmer figure, she sheepishly remarks: “not by choice.” But this “nocturnal beauty” should be discovering by now the risks and rewards of a life in electoral politics, learning, as she admits “human relations” up close and personal. Holding up the five fingers of one hand to remind voters not just that she is “de lima,” Leila is out to prove that the gesture also means her determination to put a stop to criminality and the brazen violation of the law.