MANILA, Philippines – The detention of Senator Leila de Lima shows that the Philippine justice system is “alive,” claimed Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque, as De Lima marked her first year in jail Saturday, February 24.

“Senator De Lima’s incarceration shows that the criminal justice system in the Philippines is alive, effective, and working,” Roque said in a statement Saturday.

It was exactly a year after she was detained in Camp Crame for charges that she asked campaign money from convicts who traded drugs inside the New Bilibid Prison.

Roque began his statement saying, “Let me first greet Senator Leila de Lima a happy anniversary.”

“She is the mother of all drug lords by allowing the illegal drug trade to proliferate inside the National Bilibid Prison when she was the Department of Justice Secretary,” added President Rodrigo Duterte’s spokesman. (READ: De Lima: One year of living and surviving in jail)

Roque added, “She is a living symbol that the Philippines has become a narco-state with her election in office funded by drugs.”

But in the same statement, Roque also asked that people “refrain from influencing the outcome of her case and just let the legal process proceed accordingly.”

De Lima’s detention has been strongly condemned by by members of the Church, international community and judiciary. 

After a year, De Lima is still to undergo arraignment in any of the 3 courts at the Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court (RTC). This is to let the Department of  Justice (DOJ) amend its information, heeding the advice of the Supreme Court majority ruling that kept De Lima in jail after challenges to the court’s jurisdiction.

Since February 24, 2017, 3 judges have inhibited and one retired early. – Rappler.com