MANILA — (UPDATE 4) Detained former Sen. Leila de Lima was released on Monday after more than six years of incarceration.

This, after a Muntinlupa court granted her petition for bail.

De Lima paid P300,000 as bail and left Camp Crame on Monday evening, after which she held a brief press conference in Quezon City.

"Though it took too long, I never lost faith that my inevitable freedom will come. Alam ninyong lahat kung gaano tayo katagal naghintay at nagtiis, na may pananalig na ang Katotohanan at totoong Hustisya ang magtatagumpay," de Lima said in a statement.

"Sinabi ni judge in open court. Sabi niya, briefly: 'I granted the bail application of the accused'," De Lima's lawyer Bonifacio Tacordon said.

"Merits-wise, we have been very confident that Sen. de Lima should be given temporary liberty, at least," he said, adding the grant of bail is immediately executory.

"We all believe that she is innocent and all these charges are trumped up," he also told reporters outside the court.

'More than six long years'

"Sa wakas, makakalaya na po ako (At last, I shall be free)," De Lima said as she was led out of the courtroom by police.

"For years, my whole being has been crying out for justice and freedom," she said. "For more than six long years, I've been praying."

She added that it was very painful for her to be wrongfully jailed and that she did not want that to happen to anyone else.

"This is a moment of triumphant joy and also thanksgiving," she said as she thanked God as well as her supporters who stood with her since her arrest in 2017.

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Reversal

Muntinlupa RTC Branch 206 Judge Gener Gito had reversed Judge Romeo Buenaventura’s previous denial of De Lima’s bail petition.

In a 69-page ruling, Gito said the testimonies of the prosecution's 9 witnesses "were not able to clearly establish that there exists a conspiracy among them to commit illegal drug trading."

The court also dismissed as "hearsay" the claim of the prosecution's most important witness, Herbert Colanggo, that he was raising funds for De Lima's senatorial bid.

It said the statement came from Sebastian, not De Lima.

The court also said that the testimony of Retired Gen. Benjamin Magalong, formerly head of PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, would not establish conspiracy to commit illegal drug trading among the accused.

On the contrary, it confirmed De Lima's lack of involvement in the illegal drug trading at the New Bilibid Prison.

The decision was hailed by former Vice-President Leni Robredo, ex-Senator Antonio Trillanes, and human rights lawyer Chel Diokno, among others.

"Matagal nating hinintay ang araw na ito, sa pananalig na ang tama at totoo ang palaging mananaig," said Robredo in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

Recantations and earlier acquittals

De Lima, 64, is accused of taking money from inmates inside the largest prison in the Philippines to allow them to sell drugs while she was justice minister from 2010 to 2015.

Multiple witnesses, including prison gang bosses, died or recanted their testimonies, resulting in the dismissal of two of the three charges against de Lima.

Before her arrest on February 24, 2017, de Lima had spent a decade investigating "death squad" killings allegedly orchestrated by former President Rodrigo Duterte during his time as Davao City mayor and in the early days of his presidency.

She conducted the probes while serving as the nation's human rights commissioner, and then from 2010 to 2015 as justice minister in the Aquino administration that preceded Duterte's rule.

After winning a Senate seat in the 2016 elections that also swept Duterte to power, de Lima became one of the few opposition voices.

Duterte then accused her of running a drug trafficking ring with criminals when she was justice secretary, forcing her from the Senate and into a jail cell.

De Lima lost her bid for re-election in May 2022 after campaigning from behind bars.

Duterte, who is constitutionally barred from seeking a second term as president, stepped down the following month.

While in jail de Lima suffered various health problems, including a pelvic organ prolapse that required surgery.

In October 2022, she was briefly taken hostage during an attempted breakout by three detained Abu Sayyaf militants.

Throughout the legal proceedings, de Lima has insisted the charges against her had been trumped up in retaliation for going after Duterte and his drug war that killed thousands of people.

-- With reports from Mike Navallo, ABS-CBN News; Agence France-Presse

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