An arrest warrant has been issued for the highest-profile opponent of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s deadly war on drugs, but she dodged police and sought refuge in the Senate.



The planned arrest of Senator Leila de Lima outraged her supporters and human rights activists, who said the government had manufactured drug trafficking charges to silence her criticism of Duterte and intimidate others.

The 57-year-old lawyer, who has spent nearly a decade trying to link Duterte to death squads that have allegedly killed thousands of people, could be jailed for life if she is found guilty of drug trafficking.

“I have no plans of fleeing and I have no plans to go in hiding. I will face all these charges,” a tearful De Lima told reporters at the Senate in the early evening after a Manila court issued the arrest warrant.

De Lima then went to her home in another part of the capital after believing she had secured an agreement with authorities to surrender on Friday morning.

But, after police were seen on national television driving to her home to arrest her, De Lima quickly left and returned to the perceived safety of the Senate building.

De Lima appealed late on Thursday night for police not to arrest her overnight, and committed to surrendering on Friday.

“If they respect the Senate as an institution, they should not force an arrest tonight,” she told reporters at the Senate.

Police followed her to the Senate. But, signalling an apparent pause to a night of intense drama, the head of security at the Senate and De Lima’s aides said police had committed to waiting until Friday morning to arrest her.

De Lima is accused of orchestrating a drug trafficking ring when she was justice secretary in the previous administration of Benigno Aquino.

But De Lima and her supporters insist she is innocent, and that Duterte wants to crush one of his most vocal and enduring critics.

De Lima this week branded Duterte a “sociopathic serial killer” as she called for ordinary Filipinos to stand up in opposition to his drug war, which has seen more than 6,500 people killed since he took office eight months ago.

De Lima’s Liberal Party, which ruled for six years under Aquino, voiced deep anger on Thursday at her imminent arrest.

“This arrest is purely political vendetta and has no place in (a) justice system that upholds the rule of law. This is condemnable. We reiterate that an arrest based on trumped-up charges is illegal,” it said in a statement.

The party also said it feared for De Lima’s life once she was arrested, citing the police killing of another politician, Rolando Espinosa, inside a jail cell in November last year after he was arrested on drug charges.



The National Bureau of Investigation said the police who raided the jail murdered him and that he was defenceless. But Duterte defended the police and vowed they would not be jailed.

Duterte, 71, won the presidential election last year after promising during the campaign to eradicate drugs in society by killing tens of thousands of people.

He immediately launched the crackdown after taking office in June and police have reported killing 2,555 drug suspects since then, with about 4,000 other people murdered in unexplained circumstances.

Amnesty International has warned that police actions in the drug war may amount to crimes against humanity.

Amnesty said Thursday that, if De Lima was arrested, it would regard her as a prisoner of conscience.

“The arrest of de Lima is a blatant attempt by the Philippine government to silence criticism of President Duterte and divert attention away from serious human rights violations in the ’war on drugs’,” it said.

But Duterte’s aides said De Lima’s imminent arrest showed even the most powerful people would be brought to justice if they broke the law.

“The war on illegal drugs targets all who are involved and the arrest of an incumbent senator demonstrates the President’s strong resolve to fight pushers, peddlers and their protectors,” presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said.</s>Senator and vocal critic of President Duterte faces drug trafficking charges related to her term as a justice secretary.

A Philippines senator and staunch critic of President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs has been arrested by law enforcement agents after charges were filed in court alleging she received money from drug dealers inside the country's prisons.

Senator Leila de Lima is accused of orchestrating a drug trafficking ring when she was justice secretary during the 2010-2015 administration of Benigno Aquino.

"The truth will come out and I will achieve justice. I am innocent," she told reporters shortly before law enforcers escorted her away from her office on Friday.

De Lima, her former driver and bodyguard and a former national prison official were ordered to be arrested by a local court on Thursday after a judge found merit in criminal charges filed by the Department of Justice last week.

De Lima has denied the charges, calling herself a victim of political persecution and saying she has long prepared herself to be the first "political prisoner" under the Duterte administration.

"While the issuance of the warrant of arrest is questionable, I do not have any plans to evade it," she said, calling the order premature as the court has yet to hear the response from her lawyers.

READ MORE: Duterte accused of paying police to kill

She slept in her Senate office overnight then gave herself up to armed officers in flak jackets who put her in a van and drove into morning rush hour traffic apparently towards police headquarters.

Duterte, 71, won a presidential election last year after promising during the campaign to eradicate drugs in society by killing tens of thousands of people.

Since his inauguration on June 30, an anti-drug drive has seen more than 7,000 people killed over suspected drug links - with over 60 percent of the deaths carried out by unknown assassins.

De Lima has previously called for foreign intervention to put an end to the "state-inspired" extrajudicial murders, which she said have been instigated by Duterte since his election to power.

De Lima also led a series of Senate investigations over allegations that police officers were involved in the killings, and that hired killers were operating under orders from police.

De Lima's supporters also insist she is innocent, and that the charges are trumped up to silence one of Duterte's most prominent critics.

In a statement to Al Jazeera, Senator Paolo Aquino condemned the "political persecution" of his fellow opposition Senate member.

"This arrest is purely political vendetta and has no place in justice system that upholds the rule of law. This is condemnable.

"We reiterate that an arrest based on trumped-up charges is illegal," he said citing the "haste" in de Lima's arrest.

De Lima previously claimed she was targeted because of her criticism of Duterte's drug war policy.

During her time as head of the country's human rights body, de Lima also led the investigation into the alleged extrajudicial killings of an estimated 1,000 drug suspects in Davao, while Duterte was mayor of the city.

When Duterte won as president in 2016, his feud with de Lima continued.

At one point he called on her to "hang herself", after he ordered prosecutors to investigate the senator's alleged links to the drug syndicate.

This week, de Lima branded the president a "sociopathic serial killer" after new allegations surfaced accusing Duterte of ordering drug killings in Davao.</s>MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine officials say that an opposition senator and leading critic of the president’s deadly anti-drug crackdown has been arrested on drug charges.

The arrest comes a day after the Regional Trial Court in Muntinlupa city in the Manila metropolis issued the warrant for the arrest of Sen. Leila de Lima and other officials who have been charged by Department of Justice prosecutors with receiving bribes from detained drug lords.

De Lima has denied the charges, which she said were part of an attempt by President Rodrigo Duterte to muzzle critics of his crackdown, which has left more than 7,000 drug suspects dead. She questioned why the court suddenly issued the arrest order when it was scheduled Friday to hear her petition to void the three non-bailable charges.</s>SENATOR Leila de Lima vowed to surrender to authorities today, Friday, even as she questioned the warrant of arrest issued Thursday afternoon by a Muntinlupa City Regional Trial Court (RTC) over a non-bailable drug trafficking charge.

“Like what I’ve been saying, I have no plans to run, I have no plans to hide,” an emotional de Lima told reporters who waited for three hours for the former Justice secretary to emerge from her Senate office.

“Tuloy po ang laban ni Leila de Lima (Leila de Lima’s fight will continue)” said the senator before leaving the Senate.

Judge Juanita Guerrero of Muntinlupa RTC Branch 204 issued the warrant of arrest against the senator in connection with the charges filed last week by the Department of Justice (DOJ).

Also ordered arrested were Rafael Ragos, former deputy director of the National Bureau of Investigation, and Ronnie Dayan, the senator’s former driver-bodyguard. Dayan was nabbed in Pangasinan on Thursday afternoon.

As of 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, de Lima said she had yet to receive the arrest order, which she said was questionable as the court had yet to hear her motions to quash or dismiss the case.

She said she was surprised to learn that a warrant of arrest had been issued as prosecutors earlier sought to reset a court hearing to March 3.

De Lima said she would go home first to be with her family before she is taken to jail. She promised to return to the Senate Friday morning and wait for the arresting officers.

The embattled senator thanked her party mates in the Liberal Party (LP) for their support and asked the public for prayers that she would be brought to a safe and secure place.

De Lima was joined by Senate President Pro-Tempore Franklin Drilon and Senators Francis Pangilinan and Paolo Benigno Aquino 4th when she faced the media.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed three separate cases against de Lima for her alleged involvement in illegal drug trading inside the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa when she was DOJ chief.

De Lima immediately filed three motions to quash, a motion for judicial determination of probable cause, and a motion to hold in abeyance the issuance of warrant of arrest.

The senator earlier said that if the courts denied all her motions she would run to the Court of Appeals or the Supreme Court.

Dayan, former lover and driver-bodyguard of de Lima, was arrested by policemen in his house in Urbiztondo, Pangasinan.

Dayan did not resist arrest. He was accompanied by his wife and relatives when he was brought to the police station.

Chief Insp. Joshua Maximo, the Urbiztondo police chief, said Dayan would be turned over to the Muntinlupa court on Monday.

Human rights lawyer Jose Manuel Diokno, one of the counsels of de Lima, said Thursday the warrant of arrest against the senator was premature.

“The hearing was set for tomorrow, and so we are surprised that this was preempted by the issuance of the warrant of arrest. Under the court rules, the judge will have 10 days to decide from the filing of the information in issuing a warrant, so we really did not expect for this to come out so quickly,” said Diokno, founding dean of the De La Salle University College of Law.

“This will surely be questioned. She can file a motion for reconsideration or motion to lift the warrant of arrest. But for now, she may have no choice but to adhere to it,” Diokno told reporters.

In Malacañang, President Rodrigo Duterte’s chief legal counsel, Salvador Panelo, said de Lima’s arrest order was “karma” but also an opportunity for her to refute all allegations against her.

“The issuance of a warrant for the arrest of Senator de Lima means the issuing court finds probable cause that she may have probably committed the crime charged. She should welcome this development herself as she is now given the opportunity to refute any and all allegations and/or evidence to be presented by the prosecution against her,” Panelo said.

The President’s lawyer said de Lima was being given due process which she “shamelessly denied” former president and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria-Macapagal Arroyo when she was still secretary of Justice.

In a separate statement, presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said de Lima’s arrest was “a major step forward” in the Duterte administration’s anti-drug war.

“It is a fulfillment of the campaign promise of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte to rid Philippine society of drugs, crime and corruption,” Abella said.

The Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC), one of the complainants against de Lima, lauded Judge Guerrero “who issued the [warrant]despite the obvious pressures coming from [de Lima’s]allies and party mates.”

“We urge the other two judges to do the same courageous and judicial act they are obligated to do,” VACC founding chairman Dante Jimenez said.

“We have a very strong case against de Lima. We hope she will be detained in an ordinary [cell]like other ordinary Filipinos who have committed a heinous crime.”

Prior to the release of de Lima’s arrest warrant, Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre 2nd bared a supposed P100-million offer for high-profile inmates detained at Camp Aguinaldo to retract their testimonies on de Lima’s drug links on or before February 25, the anniversary of the EDSA “People Power” revolt.

Aguirre said the prisoners declined the offer, made by a former senator and an incumbent legislator from Laguna. He declined to name them.

“They wanted to use this to attract more people to the EDSA anniversary, to mount people power, and they are being offered that they will be released,” he said.

“We are taking the matter very seriously and we will go after those who are responsible,” he added.

Not the first time

 

 It was not the first time that the paths of de Lima and Guerrero crossed. In 2011, de Lima, who was then DOJ secretary, sought the reversal of Guerrero’s decision on the case of the so-called “Alabang Boys,” a group of young men arrested by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency for drug possession and sale of prohibited drugs.

Guerrero cleared two of the suspects despite denying earlier their motion for bail.

De Lima in an interview at that time said Guerrero may have committed “gross misappreciation of procedure,” the reason that led to the acquittal of the two suspects.</s>One of the fiercest critics of Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte and his bloody crackdown on illegal drugs was arrested Thursday evening on drug-related charges in what supporters say is a politically motivated vendetta.

Sen. Leila de Lima is accused of having abetted the illegal drug trade in the New Bilibid Prison when she was justice secretary from 2010 to 2015.

A judge in the Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court on Thursday afternoon found “sufficient probable cause for the issuance of the Warrants of Arrest” against de Lima and two others.

By evening, a team from the Philippine National Police headed to the embattled lawmaker’s residence south of the capital, Manila.

“The haste is deplorable,” her fellow party members in the Senate said in a statement.

A graphic reading “One for Leila” circulated on social media. A close ally, Sen. Kiko Pangilinan, asked social media users to “please share (it) as a sign of our outrage against political persecution.”

A few hours after the arrest warrant was issued, de Lima told reporters at a press conference that she would not run away from the cases filed against her.

De Lima has consistently insisted she is not involved in the illegal drug trade.

Duterte first raised the allegations against de Lima in a speech in August.

She’s accused of receiving payoffs from convicted drug lords who were able to continue their illegal operations from behind bars while she was justice secretary. The prison facility is managed by the Bureau of Corrections, an arm of the Department of Justice.

Duterte won the presidency on a platform of cracking down on crime, particularly illegal drugs. Since taking office in June, his police force has waged a bloody war on drug dealers and users, resulting in the deaths of thousands of suspects at the hands of police and vigilantes.

De Lima became the subject of probes launched by Duterte’s political allies after the senator initiated a Senate inquiry into alleged state-sanctioned killings in the course of Duterte’s bloody war on drugs.

A Senate committee, led by an ally of Duterte’s, decided in October to drop its inquiry into the extrajudicial killings of drug dealers and users during the leader’s first few months in office.

In December, Duterte admitted to killing drug suspects during his time as mayor of Davao City.

Felons from the prison facility have directly linked de Lima to the penitentiary drug trade. But de Lima said the government pressured those convicts to testify and have an “ax” to grind against her.

As justice secretary, de Lima conducted a raid at the New Bilibid Prison maximum security area that shocked the nation, revealing a luxurious lifestyle of high-profile inmates who are now among the witnesses against her.

De Lima has said she will take legal action to protect herself from what she says is political persecution.

Last week, Duterte said he was confident the Justice Department’s case against de Lima was airtight. He said the senator “will have to face the music” and the charges filed against her.</s>“It’s an honor to be jailed for what I’m fighting for,” Senator Leila de Lima said before she turned herself in to the police on Friday morning.

De Lima was arrested for her alleged involvement on illegal drugs when she was Justice Secretary.

But until the last minute of her freedom, the senator insisted that she was innocent and that truth will prevail in the end.

(Like what I’ve always said, and I repeat, I am innocent. There is no truth to the accusations that I benefited from drugs, that I allegedly received drug money, that I allegedly coddled or protected drug suspects, these are all lies. The truth will come out in the right time.

If they think that they can silence me, if they think I will stop fighting for what I fight for, especially for the truth, for justice, against the every day killings and other vexations, assailing of the Duterte regime, then it’s my honor to go to jail for what I am fighting for. Just pray for me.)

It was De Lima, who initiated the Senate probe on alleged extrajudicial killings in the country since President Rodrigo Duterte assumed office.

After the interview outside her office, De Lima, escorted by Senate Sergeant Jose Balajadia and some Senate security, surrendered to agents of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), who waited at Balajadia’s office.

READ: After awaiting arrest at Senate, De Lima turns self in to CIDG

Senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan came to De Lima’s office before her surrender and accompanied her until she was turned over to the arresting team.

Pangilinan is president of Liberal Party, in which De Lima is a member. CDG</s>(UPDATED) The arrest warrant is issued days after the Department of Justice filed charges against its former chief for allegedly receiving drug money from convicts

MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) – The Muntinlupa City Regional Trial Court (RTC) ordered the arrest of Senator Leila de Lima and two others for drug charges on Thursday, February 23.

Judge Juanita Guerrero of Muntinlupa RTC Branch 204 issued the warrant, members of the senator's staff confirmed Thursday afternoon.

"After a careful evaluation of the herein Information and all the evidence presented during the preliminary investigation conducted in this case by the Department of Justice, Manila, the Court finds sufficient probable cause for the issuance of Warrants of Arrest against Leila M. de Lima, Rafael Marcos Z. Ragos and Ronnie Palisoc Dayan," the order read.

Ragos is former Bureau of Corrections chief while Dayan is the former driver and boyfriend of De Lima, her alleged "bagman" who dealt with New Bilibid Prison drug operators when she was justice secretary.

The arrest warrant was issued less than a week after the Department of Justice filed charges against De Lima for allegedly receiving drug money from convicts in exchange for their protection when she headed the DOJ.

Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II said in an interview on dzMM that the warrant can be served "any time of the day," even beyond 5 pm on Thursday.

De Lima's lawyer, Alex Padilla, described the development as "funny and sad" because of the circumstances surrounding the issuance of the warrant. He cited the fact that the De Lima camp had filed a motion to quash with the court which has yet to be heard.

"Parang nakakatawa na nakakalungkot. Puwede namang mangyari na mag-issue ng arrest warrant bago ang hearing ng motions pero nakakaduda kasi high-profile case ito. Malinaw na may motion to quash, sana binasa muna. Wala akong ibang maisip kundi pre-judgment on the part of the judge," Padilla said.

De Lima's Senate staff said their camp was surprised by the issuance of the warrant that day, since the judge concerned reportedly just returned from a Macau trip.

The DOJ filed 3 criminal complaints before the court against De Lima, accusing her of violating Section 5 of the Dangerous Drugs Act, which penalizes the "sale, trading, administration, dispensation, delivery, distribution and transportation of illegal drugs."

Violators face 12 years to life imprisonment and fines range from P500,000 to P10 million.

The charges were filed 5 months after a sensational House inquiry initiated by administration allies, where Bilibid convicts were allowed to testify on De Lima's alleged transactions with them. (READ: The public trial of Leila de Lima)

De Lima, a staunch critic of President Rodrigo Duterte, had earlier dismissed the charges as "plain and simple political persecution."

She had also said that she had prepared herself to be the "first political prisoner under this regime."

The senator had said on many occasions that the Chief Executive had a "personal vendetta" against her, dating back to when she was chief of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) and Duterte was still Davao City mayor.



De Lima first drew Duterte's ire when she led investigations into his ties to the so-called Davao Death Squad back when she was CHR chair under the Arroyo administration.

As a senator and then chair of the Senate committee on justice and human rights, she initiated an investigation into the spate of killings in the Duterte administration's war on drugs, triggering attacks from the President and his allies on her alleged drug links. – Camille Elemia and Lian Buan/Rappler.com</s>A Philippine opposition senator and leading critic of President Rodrigo Duterte's deadly anti-drug crackdown was arrested Friday on drug charges but professed her innocence and vowed she would not be intimidated by a leader she called a "serial killer."

Sen. Leila de Lima's arrest came a day after the Regional Trial Court in Muntinlupa city in the Manila metropolis issued the warrant for her arrest along with other officials who have been charged by state prosecutors for allegedly receiving bribes from detained drug lords.

De Lima has denied the charges, which she said were part of an attempt by Duterte to muzzle critics of his crackdown, which has left more than 7,000 drug suspects dead. She questioned why the court suddenly issued the arrest order when it was scheduled Friday to hear her petition to void the three non-bailable charges.

"If they think they can silence me, if they think I will no longer fight for my advocacies, specially on the truth on the daily killings and other intimidations of this Duterte regime, it's my honor to be jailed for what I've been fighting for," she said before policemen took her into custody at the Senate.

A police convoy, trailed by media vans, took de Lima to the main police camp, where officers will take her photograph and fingerprints before her detention.

When de Lima headed the government's Commission on Human Rights, she tried unsuccessfully to have Duterte prosecuted when he was mayor of Davao city for allegedly unlawful deaths that occurred during an anti-drug crackdown in the city. No witnesses came forward then to testify against the mayor, human rights officials said.

Duterte expanded the crackdown nationwide after becoming president last June, and de Lima has continued to criticize him after winning a Senate seat last year.

In one of her strongest statements against the president this week, de Lima called Duterte a "sociopathic serial killer" who has not been made to answer for more than 1,000 deaths during his crackdown in Davao city as its mayor and now for the thousands of drug suspects killed in his national fight against illegal drugs.

She urged Duterte's Cabinet members to declare him unfit to serve as president. Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II warned that such remarks were seditious, but de Lima replied that Aguirre and Duterte are "the rebels and inciters against a constitutional order that values life and due process above everything else."

Prosecutors allege that de Lima, while she was justice secretary under former President Benigno Aquino III, received bribes from detained drug lords to finance her senatorial campaign, and they say some of the drug lords would testify against her. The bribes were allegedly solicited by her former driver and lover, who was also charged and arrested Thursday in northern Pangasinan province.

Duterte has lashed out at de Lima with foul language, calling her a sex-crazed immoral woman whose election opened "the portals of the national government ... to narco politics."

De Lima said the case against her might be the "wakeup call" the country needs, referring to the absence of a public outcry in the country over the killings in the anti-drug campaign.

De Lima said people were starting to fight back, citing recent accounts by a former militiaman and a retired police officer who acknowledged their roles as assassins in the Davao deaths and Duterte's alleged involvement in the killings.</s>Senator of the Philippines, Leila de Lima, was arrested earlier today on charges that she received bribes from convicted drug traffickers, a charge which she has denied, and said is a case of “political persecution.” Ms. de Lima is described as “the leading domestic critic” of President Rodrigo Duterte and his Philippine drug war by the New York Times.

Amnesty International has written a report on 59 “extrajudicial executions” since the war began, entitled “The police’s murderous war on the poor.”

In 2016, a self-reported Duterte assassin appeared before de Lima at a Senate panel headed by the 57-year-old politician. A retired police officer was said to have given a similar account, scant days ago. In early August, Leila de Lima stated “We cannot wage the war against drugs with blood. We will be trading drug addiction with another more malevolent kind of addiction,” in a Senate speech, as reported by the Inquirer.

In September, de Lima, a former chair of the Philippine Commission on Human Rights, was removed from serving as justice secretary and chair of the Philippine Senate, after President Duterte alleged that the she was having a romantic affair with Ronnie Dayan, who was employed as a bodyguard and driver, and that the two were involved in accepting payments from those involved in drug trafficking for protection. Dayan has testified that he “collected money on the senator’s behalf.”

Duterte has referred to de Lima as “immoral” and suggested that she take her own life. A NSFW YouTube video, published in August, shows the Philippine president mimicking the senator.

After remaining in her office, where she has immunity, for a period on Thursday, the senator stated that she intended to say goodbye to members of her family, and indicated that she will likely turn herself in. Police were expected to move to detain her Thursday evening.

“I have no intention to flee or hide,” de Lima was quoted by the Times. “I will face these charges.”

Leila de Lima is reported to have admitted to having an affair with her bodyguard, as reported by GMA News Online. She has continued to profess her innocence with regard to any connection to drug trafficking, as reported by CNN.

Chief legal adviser for Duterte, Salvador Panelo, said that de Lima should welcome the “opportunity to refute any and all the allegations and/or evidence” that will be presented in the proceedings against her. Duterte has said that de Lima needs to “face the music.”

In addition to Ronnie Dayan’s testimony that he accepted payments on behalf of Senator de Lima, prisoners at a facility controlled by her Justice Department, have been “directly linked” to the former secretary. De Lima claims that the prisoners were “pressured” to give testimony against her and that Duterte and his administration have an “‘ax’ to grind with her.”

A raid conducted on the maximum security portion of the New Bilibid Prison, located in Muntinlupa, was conducted under Leila de Lima’s leadership. The result of the operation were revelations of “high-profile” prisoners living “luxurious” lives. The same prisoners are now included in those who have given testimony against her.

The Liberal Party of the Philippines issued a statement calling the issuing of the warrants a “political vendetta” and citing a belief that the charges should have been addressed in an anti-corruption court. The party stated that it is concerned for “Ms. de Lima’s life,” as a result of a Philippine mayor, accused of drug trafficking by Duterte, being slain in his jail cell after police officers reported that the mayor had “pulled a gun” on them during a search.</s>Philippine drug war critic Leila de Lima was a highly paid lawyer who switched focus mid-career to human rights, a decision that would draw her into the deadly world of President Rodrigo Duterte.

De Lima was due to be arrested Friday on drug trafficking charges she insists are manufactured to silence her opposition to Duterte's anti-crime crackdown, which has claimed more than 6,500 lives in eight months.

De Lima, 57, began her career as one of the brightest legal prospects in the Philippines, having scored the eighth highest mark in the country's annual lawyer licence exams in 1985.

She worked as a law clerk for the House of Representatives and as a legal aide of a Supreme Court associate justice, while building a successful law practice that specialised in helping prominent politicians in election court challenges.

De Lima helped now-Senate President Aquilino Pimentel Jnr to unseat a senate election rival, and future senator Alan Peter Cayetano beat a suit alleging he was not a Filipino citizen and therefore not qualified to run for office.

Ironically, Pimentel and Cayetano are now among the most powerful allies of Duterte, a longtime mayor of the southern city of Davao who won presidential elections last year after promising to kill tens of thousands of criminals.

De Lima's life turned in 2008 when she accepted her first government post as chairwoman of the government's independent Commission on Human Rights.

During two years in the job she worked with a small team of lowly paid lawyers, investigating extrajudicial killings, abductions and human rights violations by the Philippines' notoriously corrupt security forces.

Another one of her main targets was Duterte, who had for years faced allegations of running death squads in Davao that killed hundreds of drug addicts and petty criminals as part of a ruthless anti-crime campaign.

She left the commission with the probe unfinished in 2010 to become justice secretary in the administration of Benigno Aquino, who swept to power on a pledge to fight corruption.

As justice secretary she prosecuted cases linked to the misuse of huge amounts of legislators' so-called pork-barrel funds, and raided the country's biggest prison to dismantle the perks accorded to inmates convicted of drug offences.

She left the cabinet in late 2015 to run for the Senate, winning a seat last year at the same time Duterte was elected president.

As Duterte launched a Davao-style anti-crime crackdown that would go on to claim thousands of lives, De Lima was one of the few politicians willing to criticise him.

"I will have to destroy her in public," Duterte said in August last year, then proceeded to build a case alleging she was one of the nation's biggest drug traffickers.

"Throughout my entire life, I never imagined myself becoming a victim of a human rights violation myself," De Lima, a divorced mother-of-two, said in October as she insisted the charges against her were absurd.
A Philippine court orders the arrest of Duterte critic and Liberal senator Leila de Lima. She later voluntarily turned herself in the next day (Al Jazeera), (PDI)