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Delon Porcalla - The Philippine Star
January 12, 2026 | 12:00am
Rep. Leila de Lima (Mamamayang Liberal Partylist) in a speech during the launch of Project Transitional Justice on July 12, 2025.
Leila de Lima
MANILA, Philippines — Mamamayang Liberal party-list Rep. Leila de Lima was offended when Senate President Tito Sotto compared her absence in the Senate with those of Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa and former senator Antonio Trillanes IV, saying those were entirely different cases.
“Our non-attendance in Senate sessions during our incumbency was involuntary,” De Lima explained, referring to her time as senator during the presidency of Rodrigo Duterte, now detained in The Hague.
“With due respect, SP Sotto should not compare me or senator Trillanes with Senator Bato’s situation. I could not be physically present in the Senate because I was in detention to face the fabricated charges filed against me then by the Duterte administration,” she said.
De Lima pointed out that “Senator Bato is running away from possible arrest by the International Criminal Court” while she did not, choosing to face the trumped up charges head on, and which eventually paid off as the criminal charges have all been dismissed.
“Even if I was incarcerated then and hardly had any gadget, I was still working as a senator by way of filing bills, which is the mandate and duty of a senator, some of which have now become laws of the land,” the former justice secretary and human rights commissioner stressed.
The House deputy minority leader also related further that she begged her colleagues to let her participate in online sessions and hearings of the Senate during the pandemic, precisely because this was already allowed during that time.
“These matters of productivity in legislative output and the constant eagerness to join plenary sessions and committee hearings despite my unjust detention are clear evidence of work and intent to work,” she said.
