Free Leila De Lima Now! Free All Political Prisoners!

Malaya Movement USA denounces former Senator Leila De Lima’s continuing unjust detention and calls for her immediate release in light of recent hostage taking incident where she was held at knife-point by a fellow prisoner this past weekend. 

It's been five grueling years since Sen. De Lima was put in jail due to her staunch opposition to Duterte's war on drugs, an atrocious, state sanctioned massacre of the poor. She has joined the more than 800 political prisoners that are currently languishing inside the Philippine government prisons in horrible conditions. 

On October 8, 2022 Sen. De Lima became a victim of a violent hostage situation at Camp Crame, where her fellow prisoners were planning an escape. She described it as a “near death” experience and is continuing to recover from the physical and psychological impacts from this incident. Rather than offering to free De Lima from prison, Marcos Jr. merely offered a transfer to another facility. 

There is no reason, moral nor legal, why Sen. De Lima remains in prison, especially with the recent developments. Both self-confessed drug lord, Kerwin Espinosa and Bureau of Corrections Chief, Rafael Ragos have both retracted their statements against Leila, which were originally used as evidence against her in court.

Like De Lima, many activists, human rights defenders, common people who fought for their rights and have organized for better living conditions for workers, union leaders, farmers and human rights defenders are currently languishing in jail. Many of them are women, elderly, and sick. Many of them are victims of similar political repression by Duterte and now the Marcos government - the weaponization of law to silence dissent rather than the rule of law to protect civil and political rights.

Since Marcos Jr. came to power, he has committed to continuing Duterte’s deadly war on drugs, and we’ve seen more human rights defenders become political prisoners. This is why we, in the Malaya Movement USA, reiterate our commitment and demand for the immediate and unconditional release of former senator Leila De Lima and all political prisoners. We demand that the Marcos Jr regime take concrete and immediate steps to free all political prisoners and end the systematic and state-sanctioned political repression against government critics, activists, and human rights defenders.

Free Leila De Lima and free all political prisoners!