MANILA, Philippines – Detained Senator Leila de Lima was cleared by the Muntinlupa City Regional Trial Court (RTC) to cast her vote next Monday, May 13.

De Lima’s media officer Ferdinand Maglalang told reporters on Tuesday, May 7, that all courts handling the senator’s drug cases have given their go signal.

In one of the courts’ resolutions, Judge Liezel Aquiatan of Muntinulupa City RTC Branch 205 said that “it is the policy of the State to ensure that all qualified voters including persons deprived of liberty found in jails, prisons, and other detention facilities are provided with access to exercise their right to suffrage.”

De Lima will be able to vote on Monday from 12 pm to 2 pm at her precinct in Parañaque City. The senator will vote under the Commission on Elections’ Escorted Detainee Voting System.

“[De Lima] shall bear all the necessary costs and expenses for her transport from the Philippine National Police Custodial Center in Camp Crame, Quezon City, to her polling place pursuant to the Escorted Detainee Voting System,” said Aquiatan.

The judge also ordered De Lima to “refrain from giving interviews before and after she casts her vote.”

In her handwritten statement from Camp Crame on Sunday, May 5, De Lima called for votes for her allies in the opposition slate Otso Diretso, whom she called the conscience vote.

“Walang imposible! Kaya natin ipanalo ‘yung hindi mga corrupt, hindi mga tuta, at hindi mga bastos,” De Lima said.

(Nothing is impossible! We can ensure the win of people who are not corrupt, who are not lackeys, who are not vulgar.) – Rappler.com