After Seven Years, Leila de Lima Finally Allowed to Post Bail

Embattled former Senator Leila De Lima has been allowed to post bail in her final remaining drug case, her lawyer Boni Tacardon said on Monday (November 13).

Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 206 granted De Lima’s motion for reconsideration on her bail petition. De Lima posted bail in the amount of P300,000. De Lima has been detained in Camp Crame since February 2017 for drug-related charges that she has consistently denied. Two out of the three cases have already been dismissed. De Lima previously filed her supplemental petition for bail in February 2023.

De Lima's last acquittal came in May 2023, when Muntinlupa City RTC Branch 204 absolved her of one of her final remaining drug charges after the retraction of former Bureau of Corrections acting chief Rafael Ragos.

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The said case accused De Lima and Ragos of extorting money from drug traffickers, or persons deprived of liberty, inside the New Bilbid Prison in Muntinlupa to allegedly fund her 2016 senatorial run. Presiding Judge Abraham Joseph Alcantara, however, put an end to that by saying that the former BuCor chief created "reasonable doubt" after he retracted his statements about the former lawmaker.

“I am, of course, happy that with this second acquittal in the three cases filed against me, my release from more than six years of persecution draws nearer,” the former senator said at the time.

De Lima has only been out of detention when she was granted furlough. In 2019, she visited her mother in Iriga City for two days while in 2021, she spent three days for hospital tests to dismiss any possibility of a stroke.

Best known as a human rights advocate, De Lima was one of the most vocal critics of former President Rodrigo Duterte administration's War on Drugs campaign. The charges against her, she claims, had always been politically motivated.